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
Missouri Republicans, at direct instruction from †rump, have gerrymandered a Black congressman's district out of existence, put the abortion rights voters just won up for repeal, and are now trying to make sure citizens can never use the ballot initiative process to fight back again. This is the 2026 playbook. And Missouri is ground zero.
