Tommy Sowers (D), a
Missouri educator and military veteran, was in the nation's capital on
Monday to build support for his upset-minded campaign against Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R).
Sowers told CQ Politics that he recently finished up a 28-day,
28-county campaign in Missouri's 8th, a mostly rural, economically
struggling and culturally conservative area area of southeastern
Missouri. He said he worked alongside district residents and listened
to their concerns.
"The anti-incumbent sentiment," he said, "is there, and specific."
"People are frustrated and they're angry, and frankly, they should be," Sowers said.
Sowers said that southeastern Missouri has been hit hard by policies
"that favor the big over the small." His platform includes
strengthening infrastructure: Sowers said that he got better cellphone
reception in Baghdad, where he served as an Army special forces
officer, than he does in southeastern Missouri. The district's Internet
access is "abysmal," he said.
Sowers raised $384,000 for his campaign through the end of last
year, already more than six times what 2008 Democratic nominee Joe
Allen raised for a campaign that netted just 26 percent of the vote.
He's criticized Emerson for raising a large percentage of her campaign
funds from political action committees.
Emerson on Monday formally filed paperwork to run for an eighth full term.
"In a year where conservatives are sure to pick up seats in
Congress, Nancy Pelosi and the liberal establishment are going to fight
for any and every seat they can get in order to cling to power in the
House," Emerson said in a statement. "But I think the policies of the
liberal left have been roundly rejected in southern Missouri, and I
look forward to the opportunity to work on an agenda where the ideas of
our district are given the credence and merit they deserve."
