State Rep. Trish Gunby has decided to run for Congress in the 2nd congressional district with a formal announcement planned for next week.
Gunby, a Democrat from St. Louis County, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Thursday to run as a Democrat for the U.S. House seat. GOP Congresswoman Ann Wagner currently holds the seat.
Gunby won her seat in the Missouri Legislature in an upset special election in 2019, beating her Republican challenger by about 500 votes. In the House, she’s a member of the Economic Development, Utilities, Veterans, and Ways and Means committees.
A campaign spokesperson for Gunby confirmed Thursday that she will launch her congressional bid next week. A formal announcement is planned for Monday.
Gunby is a former Citicorp Mortgage and Purina employee with a background in project management and marketing. She has been active in the community through local projects and volunteer work, particularly with advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice.
She studied political science as well as advertising and public relations at the University of Tulsa. Her HD 99 was previously held by Jean Evans, the former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party.
“I had gotten active in my church and various social justice ministries and was doing work with a community group around voting rights. And so when [Rep.] Jean Evans resigned, folks reached out to me and said they thought that I should run,” Gunby previously told The Missouri Times. “It had not been on my radar up to that point, but I did my homework and started talking to folks and decided that this was my next chapter.”
Wagner, a former U.S. ambassador, has held the 2nd congressional seat since 2013. She has been floated as a potential U.S. Senate candidate to replace outgoing Senator Roy Blunt.
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.
