Democrats seek to flip suburban St. Louis seat in Congress
O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) - Democratic groups are hoping to flip a Republican-held suburban St. Louis congressional district, with two of them spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new TV ads to support the challenger.
State Sen. Jill Schupp, a Democrat from Creve Coeur, is challenging four-term Republican incumbent Ann Wagner in Missouri's 2nd District. Wagner narrowly held her seat in 2018, beating relatively unknown Democrat Cort VanOstran by just 4 percentage points. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report calls this year's race a tossup.
The pro-Democratic House Majority PAC on Monday announced it was spending another $11 million for ads in several districts across the country, including $1.3 million in the St. Louis market.
'œWe are six months into a pandemic with no plan in sight and voters are tired of the chaos created by Donald Trump,'ť Executive Director Abby Curran Horrell said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Tuesday released two new TV ads that characterize Wagner as a pawn for big corporations and special interests, and citing her votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. The group said last week that it was spending nearly $500,000 on ads in St. Louis.
It's not clear how much of the Democratic groups' ads are aimed at Wagner's district. Republican Rep. Rodney Davis, whose district includes the area of Illinois near St. Louis, also is seen as vulnerable and some of the advertising could go toward supporting his Democratic challenger, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.
Wagner's campaign manager, Kris Cook, said in a statement that Democrats 'œare peddling outright lies that distort Ann's strong record of accomplishments for her constituents. Ann has voted to provide coverage for preexisting conditions, lower the cost of prescription drugs, introduced a bill to continue lost employer based health insurance coverage during COVID, and is working to ensure suburban families have accessible and affordable healthcare coverage.'ť
Schupp's campaign spokeswoman, Natalie Edelstein, said 2nd District residents 'œare ready for change.'ť
'œPeople are tired of being brushed aside by their representative in favor of corporate special interests and are eager to have someone in Congress who has their back. That's Jill Schupp,'ť Edelstein said in a statement.
Missouri's 2nd District includes middle class and wealthy suburbs of St. Louis.
"It is the kind of suburban district with a constituency that's probably above average in terms of education, and it's the kind of district where President Trump has been losing support,'ť University of Missouri-St. Louis political scientist David Kimball said.
Wagner has been running negative ads accusing Schupp of being soft on crime. Kimball said those ads are evidence that Wagner's campaign sees Schupp as a serious threat.
'œNormally you don't see an incumbent go negative against a challenger unless they think they might lose,'ť Kimball said.