Meet Aaron Metzger: Joplin's Night-Shift Healthcare Worker Running for Missouri House District 161
- Kal Inois
- May 25
- 2 min read
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.
Metzger lives in Joplin with his wife and daughter. He says the people he works alongside and lives next to are working harder than ever and getting less for it, and that Jefferson City has been making things worse.
Healthcare Everybody Can Use
From years on the night shift, Metzger has seen firsthand who has insurance and who does not, which families drove an hour because their local hospital cut services, and which neighbors waited so long that by the time they were seen, there was not much anyone could do. In Jefferson City, he has pledged to defend Missouri's Medicaid expansion, which voters approved at the ballot box. He will push back on policies that drive up prescription costs, fight to keep regional and rural hospitals open and staffed, and work to make mental health care affordable and accessible to working families.
A Paycheck That Goes Far Enough
Metzger says families in District 161 are squeezed from every direction: rent, groceries, childcare, utilities, and gas. He is calling for real action on childcare costs, housing policy that does not leave families one bad month from disaster, wages that keep up with the actual cost of living in southwest Missouri, and tax policy that does not hand the bill to people who are already stretched thin.
On that last point, Metzger has been vocal about HJR 173 and 174, the Republican-backed constitutional amendment to repeal Missouri's state income tax. He argues the plan is a tax cut for the wealthy paid for by working families. Missouri's individual income tax brought in over $9 billion in fiscal year 2024, roughly 60% of general revenue, funding public schools, Medicaid, roads, bridges, and state troopers. The state's own fiscal note projects a $4.2 billion revenue loss in 2027, rising to $8.5 billion by 2029. Meanwhile, a working family earning $45,000 might save $300 on income tax and lose more than that to higher sales taxes on everyday purchases. A household earning over $700,000 pockets more than $21,000. Metzger points to Kansas, which tried the same approach in 2012 and saw a $700 million shortfall in school funding, two credit rating downgrades, and its own Republican legislature repealing the plan in 2017 because the math did not work.
Respecting Voters
Metzger has been clear that a representative's job is to respect what Missourians decide at the ballot box, not find ways around it. He says he is tired of politicians who go to Jefferson City to fight on television instead of solve problems.
The August 4 primary will determine his Republican opponent. Metzger will face either Thomas Ross or Louise Secker in the November 3 general election. Incumbent Lane Roberts is barred from running again by term limits.
To learn more or get involved, visit metzgerformissouri.com. Click here to for Imma J. Curl
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