Back in 2016, after the first election of Donald Trump, Craig Zumsteg was feeling frustrated. A Democrat who lived outside of New York City, he wanted to support resistance to Trump’s policies. But how?
He found the answer in New York’s 19th congressional district, a few hours’ drive from his home. Democrats eager to flip the district had set up a political action committee and a troop of volunteers. More than a year before the district’s Republican congressman was up for reelection, they began knocking doors—learning what mattered to people who lived there and getting a sense of who might be persuaded to vote Democratic. “I feel like I spent my life for two years driving two hours to do all this stuff in this congressional district,” he says.
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It paid off: In 2018, they flipped the district. And Zumsteg—who later moved to St. Louis and has gotten even more involved in politics—hopes to take what he learned as a volunteer to get started early on flipping a prize long coveted by Democrats: The seat held by U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Ballwin) in Missouri second congressional district.
Zumsteg’s new political action committee, Heartland Wins, held its first fundraiser earlier this week, a small gathering at the home of former state Rep. Barbara Phifer (D-Kirkwood). And just like in New York’s 19th district, Zumsteg is ready to organize volunteers to knock doors, no candidate needed.
In Zumsteg’s telling, the district not yet having settled on a candidate is a feature, not a bug. A crowded primary field in the 19th district meant that a candidate wasn’t chosen until a few months before the general election. Having a corps of volunteers canvassing the district—and organizing themselves without any involvement of a campaign apparatus—made that sprint significantly easier.
The district is almost certain to be a battleground. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently announced that Wagner will be one of their targets in 2026. So did Emily’s List. Former state Rep. Trish Gunby (D-Ballwin) notes that that’s the kind of help she didn’t get in her race against Wagner two years ago, despite Emily’s List having previously supported her state-level race.
Gunby notes that voters in the second district overwhelmingly voted for Amendment 3, which overturned Missouri’s abortion ban, and Prop A, which raised the minimum wage. “I think that support has now awakened Emily’s list and the Democratic Party to say, ‘Oh, there may be some conservative areas certainly in that district, but they wholeheartedly support Amendment 3.’ When you see that support come out of the district, I think the next candidate will see more support.”
Zumsteg stresses that his effort is not about raising millions of dollars. It’s about organizing people. “In order to flip a congressional seat like this, you have to do more both within the party and from outside the party,” he says. “There’s this wonderful result when all of that comes together.”
He adds, “You’re building this brand where people are enjoying coming out and you do these canvasses maybe once a month to keep people practiced and building their skills, but at the same time you’re not burning them out the way sometimes campaign work does when you’re being told you have to volunteer every day. Pretty much everybody who has a skill set will be able to find a home doing something there.”
Monday’s fundraiser drew about $3,000, which Zumsteg says will be enough to allow him to purchase the voter list that will allow for intelligent doorknocking. Having Phifer and Gunby talk about their experiences as candidates provided practical grounding in the kind of strategies that can work for the district’s voters.
And the energy in the room, both Gunby and Zumsteg agree, was palpable. Gunby was excited to see some new faces. And if nothing else, local Democrats seem relieved to have an outlet for their energies.
Says Zumsteg, “We’re in this moment that reminds me very much of 2017, where everybody is sort of freaking out and going to protests and finding all the things that they can do. And I’m a huge supporter of all that, but I also think you need to be finding ways that actually tap into electoral results.”
Arthur Bryant, a spokesman for Wagner, said she’s ready for the challenge. “Congresswoman Wagner has a lengthy record of success in Missouri’s 2nd District and it’s no surprise that radical Democrats are trying yet again to attack her and lie about all she has done to make life better for all those in her community,” he said in a statement. “She is and always will be an effective and transparent advocate for Missourians, holding Office Hours with Ann to answer questions right in their neighborhoods, as well as rallies, business roundtables, teletown halls, and so much more. She just announced she raised over $800k last quarter and is ready to bring her record of accomplishments directly to the voters and work hard every day to earn their vote once again.”
He did not respond to questions about when she might hold an actual town hall—something that Democrats have sought to make an issue of for years (even as Wagner continues to not hold them).
The closest Democrats have ever come to beating Wagner was in 2018, when a young lawyer named Cort VanOstran who’d never held political office before came within four points, shocking just about everybody. But the district lines have since been redrawn, and even Gunby (with a strong record representing part of it in the statehouse) and Ray Hartmann (with strong name recognition from years on TV) couldn’t come closer than 12 points away.
Zumsteg knows all that. But he also knows what could be possible—because he’s seen it before.
“I get why some people would tune out, but after what we went through in New York, I see that there’s definitely a path where that’s achievable,” he says. “But it doesn’t happen unless you start on it.”
