How a ‘flaming liberal’ podcast host won a US House seat in conservative Missouri

Democrat Fred Wellman, a 61-year-old retired Army officer, veterans advocate and anti-Trump podcaster, unseated Republican Representative Ann Wagner in Missouri's second congressional district on Tuesday, a result few observers anticipated. The win came amid a wider Democratic surge nationwide. Wagner had been expected to keep the seat, and the Cook Political Report never shifted the race from "safe Republican.", according to The Guardian.

Wellman hosts On Democracy on the progressive MeidasTouch network and has more than 358,000 followers on X. Wagner's campaign tried to turn his media persona against him in an advertisement that highlighted his past description of himself as a "flaming liberal." Wellman says he deliberately kept the focus on his upbringing in Kirkwood, Missouri, and on serving the 759,000 people in the district, rather than presenting himself as a national celebrity. He also traveled throughout the district to meet voters in person.

Wellman describes the race as roughly even in his own estimate. Wagner, a 14-year incumbent, began with $4.5m on hand while he started with nothing, and national Democratic groups stayed out. Wellman says he saw Wagner as far weaker than analysts believed, and that organized labor, apart from police and fire unions, backed him.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →