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Aaron Joseph Metzger is not a career politician. He is a CT technologist who has worked at a Joplin hospital, scanning patients through every emergency that does not wait for daylight. Now he is running as the Democratic candidate for Missouri House District 161. Missi Hesketh is not a politician who came to southwest Missouri to run for office. She is from here. With elections around the corner, Missouri voters need to know the dates, deadlines, and requirements before the

Aaron Joseph Metzger is not a career politician. He is a CT technologist who has worked the night shift at a Joplin hospital for 13 years, scanning patients through car wrecks, heart attacks, strokes, and every emergency that does not wait for daylight. Now he is running as the Democratic candidate for Missouri House District 161, which covers most of Joplin north of the Newton County line.

Joplin, Missouri sits on a federal Superfund site where one in six residents lives in poverty, 460 children are homeless, and wages run $28,000 below the national average, the direct legacy of industrial extraction that built fortunes and left workers with poisoned soil. Yet Joplin votes Republican by 74% margins, rejected its own minimum wage increase by 731 votes, and sends to Washington two senators who have not lifted a finger to address the very conditions their party cr