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Missouri voters head to the polls on August 4, 2026 for the state primary election, and this year the stakes are much higher than most primaries. Here is what is on your ballot and what it means.

Doniphan is a town of roughly 1,800 people in one of the poorest counties in Missouri, where nearly 1 in 3 residents lives below the poverty line, the nearest hospital closed in 2018, and every elected official who represents them is a Republican who has voted for policies that make their lives harder. In 2026, that can change. This guide tells you exactly what is at stake, who is running, what the Republicans have done to this community, and why the Democrats challenging 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.