Nick Vivio is raising money to challenge Ann Wagner—and eliminate medical debt

Nick Vivio, a Democrat who launched his campaign for Congress earlier this week, knows why even people who support his goal of unseating U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Ballwin) might question his timing. 

“They’re like, You have a young family, your wife’s 21 weeks pregnant—like, they see my family as a reason not to do it. I see them as a reason to do it. Because I don’t think we can wait another cycle or two to jump in.” He adds, “I know there will be other Democrats in the race, but the two who are currently in, I personally don’t find their candidacy very compelling, right?” 

An epidemiologist at Columbia University, Vivio and his wife were living in New York City and expecting their first child when COVID-19 shut down the city. While the couple met in New York, they’re both from the St. Louis area (his parents are in St. Charles, hers in Carbondale, Illinois), so they moved back to the Midwest to ride out the pandemic. Weeks turned into years, their pandemic baby girl will be joined by a post-pandemic baby boy in February, and while Vivio has been happy working remotely, he now plans to go on leave from Columbia this month so he can be all-in on his congressional campaign. “It has to be an 80-hour week, 100-hour week thing to win,” he says. His goal is to raise $1 million, and that’s just for the primary.

But it’s not all about money for his own campaign. Vivio’s animating issue is medical debt, which he believes reveals America’s broken healthcare system and puts undue strain on far too many families. At his kickoff Tuesday and in the weeks ahead, he plans to also raise money for what he’s calling the Clean Slate Project: an effort to raise $100,000 to eliminate the estimated $17.7 million in medical debt now on the books for Warren, Franklin, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties, all of which—not coincidentally—make up the congressional district in which he’s running. He’s working with a nonprofit that buys up medical debt at a steep discount and then forgives it, and he’s confident his campaign can power that entire sum. 

People who go to Vivio’s campaign site are encouraged to donate to his run for office, but they’re also directed to a crowd-funding page for the project.

Go Deeper: If elected to Congress, Vivio, 44, says one major legislative priority would be passing a bill to ensure that the government picks up the bill for COBRA coverage for the first three months after you lose your job. He also wants to introduce a plan under which Medicare would offer a buy-in option on the Health Insurance Marketplace for individuals and small businesses. “It’s going to force private insurers to compete more,” he vows.

To make anything like that happen, Vivio knows Democrats would have to retake Congress. But that all starts with Wagner’s seat: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has designated her district as one it hopes to put in play in 2026. In addition to Vivio, podcast host Fred Wellman, plumber Chuck Summers, and physician Timothy Bilash are all running for the seat as Democrats; those ranks are likely to swell in the months ahead.

What’s Next: Vivio kicked off his campaign Tuesday at Parker’s Table in Richmond Heights. He believes there’s great demand for an alternative to Wagner, noting that he recently ran into an acquaintance who donated to her 2012 campaign. “I mentioned my plans to him, and he got so excited,” he says, adding that the man was eager to vote for someone who would stand up to President Donald Trump. “He’s just like, She knows better, she’s just craven and spineless. And it’s whether you’re a true MAGA extremist or you’re just craven or spineless, the effect is the same.”

Arthur Bryant, a spokesman for Wagner, defends her record, saying, “Congresswoman Wagner fights every day to lower prices for families, grow our economy, and keep America safe. She is constantly out talking with Missourians in the Second District and being their effective advocate in Congress. She works hard to earn their vote every two years and is ready to take on whoever emerges from the far-left primary.” 

Bryant adds, “The congresswoman looks forward to running a spirited general election campaign based on the issues important to Second District voters once the Democrats have chosen their nominee next August. Until then she will continue working hard to represent Missouri in the U.S. House.”

If there is an easy attack on Vivio, it’s that he lives in Clayton, one mile outside the district, and has no plans to move. He touts the family members who live in the district, the church in the district he went to as a kid, and the fact he visits the district multiple times every week. He says he’s just fine not living there even if he’s elected, because he’s there so often (which is legal, although fairly unusual). “And frankly,” he says, “Ann Wagner is never here anyway.”