State Rep. Sara Walsh announced her candidacy to succeed Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler in the U.S. House Wednesday, promising to “defend the American dream.”
“My life is proof that in America anything is possible. But the American dream is under attack by socialists and career politicians in Washington, D.C.,” Walsh said. “I’m running for Congress to defend the American dream and to ensure our kids and grandkids have the same opportunities we had.”
She has served HD 50 in the legislature — which encompasses parts of Boone, Cole, Cooper, and Moniteau counties — since she was elected in 2017.
Walsh is the chair of the Consent and House Procedure Committee as well as the Subcommittee on Appropriations – Public Safety, Corrections, Transportation and Revenue. Prior to her time in the General Assembly, Walsh served as a Member Services Coordinator for the Missouri Pharmacy Association, a staff auditor in the Auditor’s Office, and the Program and Outreach Manager for the National Newspaper Association, among other things.
Missouri’s 4th congressional district — as it stands now — is a large and diverse expanse of the state, from Columbia sweeping west to just below Kansas City, stretching down to Pittsburg and Lebanon, and settling north of Springfield. It includes both Whiteman Air Force Base in Johnson County and Fort Leanord Wood in Pulaski County.
Hartzler announced her candidacy for the open U.S. Senate seat, replacing Senator Roy Blunt, in June. A social conservative, she is only the second Republican woman elected to Congress from Missouri and assumed office in 2011.
According to her campaign website, Walsh was born in southern California, but her family moved to Camden County because of the Golden State’s “regulations and restrictions” on homeschooling. Her biography says her family lived paycheck to paycheck but “refused government handouts.”
Walsh has a Master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Missouri and a business administration degree from Columbia College. She now lives in Ashland along with her husband.
While in office, Walsh has often touted her pro-life stance. Most recently, she fought to attach “defund Planned Parenthood” language to the FRA reauthorization during the special session last month (a mostly clean FRA was passed, however) and has served as a Missouri Right to Life board member.
Walsh also championed in 2019 the addition of the “Back the Blue” license plates available to Missourians. The plate’s design contains a blacked-out Missouri outline with a blue line running through it — similar to the flag. A $10 contribution associated with the license plate is made to the Missouri Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation.
“On Day One, I will get to work finishing what President Donald Trump started: securing the border, cutting waste in the budget, shutting down the socialist agenda, and defending the American dream,” Walsh said in her campaign video. “Because we must ensure that with big dreams and hard work, anything is still possible here in America.”
Her husband, Steve Walsh, is Hartzler’s press secretary.
Similar to the woman she hopes to replace in Congress, Walsh launched her campaign Wednesday morning from Targetmasters, a gun shop, in Columbia. Nearly one month earlier, Hartzler kicked off her U.S. Senate campaign from the Frontier Justice shooting range in Lee’s Summit.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.