Missouri's general election is November 3. Voters will decide on several key amendments, state Senate and House seats and seats in the U.S. Senate and House.
Missouri House District 161, which covers Webb City and parts of Joplin, has two newcomers on the ballot this year.
During the primary election, voters initially selected Thomas Ross as the Republican candidate. But in early September, Ross was arrested and eventually charged with conspiring to plant cocaine and adderall on his Republican opponent,Louise Secker. Ross withdrew his candidacy after the Jasper County Republicans and chair of the Missouri Republican Party called for his name to be removed from the ballot.
Secker is now the Republican candidate for District 161. She didn’t know Ross before they ran against each other. In an interview with KRPS, she said she was unfamiliar with the “ugliness of politics” before this happened to her.
“I couldn't have conceived of something like this in my wildest dreams that would happen during a primary campaign, particularly one from our area,” she said. “I really think that we are a great community, good neighbors to each other."
Secker is a realtor for Keller Williams in Joplin. Although new to politics and campaigns, she has experience in business and nonprofit management. She calls herself a lifelong conservative.
After talking to voters, Secker said they're concerned about affordability and Amendment 3. A yes vote for Amendment 3 would repeal the 2024 voter-approved amendment that made abortion legal in the state. It would also prohibit gender transition procedures for minors.
If elected, Secker is interested in joining the budget, crime and public safety and children and families committees. She wants to ensure the upcoming state budget doesn't negatively impact her constituents in the Joplin area.
"I am very anxious to represent Joplin well and make sure that nothing happens that would be harmful, obviously, to our part of the state," she said. “So being part of those budget conversations is something I hope to do."
The Democratic candidate,Aaron Metzger, is also running for the statehouse for the first time. He's a CT radiologist at a local Joplin hospital. A Facebook post from the Southwest Missouri Democrats says “the most important plank of his campaign is healthcare.”
He was inspired to run after seeing the public’s frustrations with politicians from the public? and wondering what he could do. According to him, the District 161 race is "an uphill battle."
“We are focused and we believe that we can flip this year and take this district in a new direction," he said.
Metzger wants Medicaid expansion and to make sure the state's education is fully funded. This year's legislative budget did not fully fund K-12 education.
After recent door-knocking, he said voters are concerned about the expansion of data centers, specifically the environmental effects, funding, and proximity of data center projects to local land. He wants better regulation of Missouri’s tax incentives for data centers.
According to Metzger, the Thomas Ross incident is another example of "what we see in our politics today — the bad behavior, corruption."
“To get kind of in the middle of a little bit of that as a first-time candidate, it just kind of reassures us that we need better people running," he added..
District 161 has been represented by a Republican since 2012, when Bill White was elected to the seat.
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