Whitney Curtis
Rasheen Aldridge, 5th Ward Democratic Committeeman in St. Louis, poses for a portrait outside City Hall on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018. (Photo © Whitney Curtis)
When 78th District state Representative Bruce Franks Jr. stepped down from his seat in the Missouri House, Rasheen Aldridge—the city’s Fifth Ward Democratic committeeman, a Ferguson activist, and current employee of the city’s Office of the Recorder of Deeds—was tapped to replace him. Aldridge, 25, grew up in the city, attended Parkway West, and has been an organizer for the Fight for $15 minimum wage movement. He’ll be sworn in January 8. At the soon-to-be state rep’s victory party, Kevin Windham Jr., the former youngest Democratic House member, gave Aldridge his House Democrat pin. It was a gesture that made Aldridge a little emotional. “Hopefully other young people will look at me and know that they can be change agents and community leaders,” he says. “That they don’t have to feel like they live in a community that’s hopeless.”
On one of his top priorities: Raising the minimum wage—that’s probably one of the first pieces of legislation I’ll file. So many people are working low-wage jobs—not even just one. They’re working two jobs and can’t support themselves, let alone their families.
On tackling crime in his district: One thing about the 78th District is that it’s diverse. We take in the Old North area, St. Louis Place, Carr Square, all of downtown basically, continuing South to Soulard and Benton Park West and Dutchtown. I would say across the whole district, we have a crime problem. To me, instead of being tougher on crime and locking people up, we need to be smarter on crime. How do we provide opportunities? What legislation, what social programs, what groups can we find that help people with job readiness, that help people get a quality education, that help people not feel like they’re just in their neighborhood existing but they’re actually part of it?
On a piece of legislation that’s a long game: My priorities are working family based. One thing I’m interested in, which I don’t expect to happen in the first or second year, is what I call the Self-Care Act. We would move from five-day workweeks to four-day workweeks so people could spend more time with their families, to be able to go to the doctor, give people more time to be well. I know in some rural areas, schools are moving to four-day school weeks. Hopefully it will be something that House Republicans have an appetite for.
On picking up where Franks left off in regards to gun laws: One piece of legislation I want to file is for a lost firearm registry, so when people sell guns or if [guns are] lost, there’s some way to track them. I also want to file a red flag law to try to get guns out of the hands of people who are mentally ill. When it comes to guns, we gotta do something. We have lax gun laws in the state that are killing us. I own a gun, and I believe in the Second Amendment, but we need to make sure people are responsible.
On what he’ll have in common with conservative House members: I know in some of Missouri’s rural areas, there are families struggling to keep the lights on. Some families in rural areas don’t have quality education. We come from different walks of life, but across the state, a lot of issues that are happening in the urban community also happen in rural communities.
