Democrats in D.C. dream of flipping the House—and maybe even the Senate. But despite poll numbers showing Republicans’ popularity has taken a substantial hit in Missouri, local Democrats have a more modest goal: They want to flip enough seats to no longer be a superminority. That would mean flipping two Senate seats and three House seats.
One of the party’s best shots might be the 100th district, which is mostly in Ballwin. Republican Representative Philip Oehlerking won his last two races by less than 200 votes, narrowly holding off challenges by Democrat Colin Lovett. Now first-time candidate Mary Ann Perkins, who stepped in after Lovett decided not to run again, hopes to persuade enough voters to close the gap.
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She believes more voters in the district share her values than its long history as a Republican seat would suggest. ”District 100 would’ve put Kamala Harris in the White House if it was just our district,” she observes in a new episode of The 314 Podcast. “We have the same thing with Lucas Kunce against Josh Hawley.” Voters also backed 2024’s Amendment 3, which enshrined abortion rights in the Missouri constitution.
Reached by email, Oehlerking says, “Voters in District 100 know I am an effective leader who works to get things done. I’m not beholden to either party and I have worked on issues that actually matter like reducing the cost of healthcare, lowering property taxes, and making housing affordable. I will continue to provide excellent service to my constituents who have elected me to represent them twice and I hope to earn their support for a third time in November.”
As for Perkins, she spent years living overseas for her husband’s job (they’ve since divorced, and she now works in advancement for WashU’s Brown School). It was after the mother of two returned home to her native St. Louis County that she first began getting involved politically. Galvanized by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, she gathered signatures to get the amendment on the ballot.
“As I was working on that, I had no idea that that was an excellent little bootcamp for being a candidate,” she says. “But it really, really was in a lot of ways.”
For one thing, it taught her how to get out there and talk to people—even people she seemingly has nothing in common with other than that they made their homes in or near Ballwin. ”Now that I’m a candidate knocking on doors, I’m walking through neighborhoods that I have already canvassed two years ago,” she says.
But Perkins might have more in common with her conservative neighbors than they’d realize based on her party affiliation. She was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members lean Republican more than any other religious group. She now facilitates the Religious Transition Group at the Ethical Society of St. Louis, and she knows from hearing other members’ stories how lucky she is to still be accepted and close with her parents despite leaving the Mormon church.
“There have been a couple times in my life where I had to change my mind about something really big,” she says. “And so I do feel like I understand personally what the stakes are there and the price that people might pay for a decision like that.”
She adds, “ I definitely empathize with people who have to come to the point where they see, I have had my ladder leaning on the wrong tree, and I am now going to climb down from this ladder and move it, and I’m going to start over. It’s very hard. And so I don’t ever want to make that seem like something that is no big deal.”
Democrats have been a superminority for 14 years, holding less than one-third of the seats in Jefferson City. That gives them little power over which bills get a hearing, with only limited tools like the filibuster at their disposal. Perkins, however, is just one of many first-time Democratic candidates making their case to voters this fall. KCUR reports that Democrats are fielding candidates in 97 percent of this year’s statehouse and state-wide races—up from 70 percent in 2020.
“I feel a strong sense of pride in being part of a cohort of candidates all across St. Louis County who are doing this work in their districts,” Perkins says, “We have so many strong candidates this election season and so for everyone who’s listening—I’m sure you have many listeners who are not in my district. I just want them all to go find their state rep candidate.”
