Senate candidate visits Perryville

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The formal filing deadline is several months away and the primary won't occur until Aug. 2, 2022. However, several individuals are traveling the state in hopes generating traction with voters with the intent to winning an open U.S. Senate seat in November 2022.

Incumbent Roy Blunt opted to not seek re-election to another six-year term and a number of Republican and Democratic candidates are lining up for possibly joining the primary contest.

There was local interest last week as Scott Sifton, a former Missouri representative and state senator, met with a few voters at Villainous Grounds Aug. 24.

"I'm running for U.S. Senate because we cannot have Josh Hawley and Eric Greitens be our U.S. Senate delegation," said Sifton, a Democratic candidate. "We need an advocate not just from Missouri but for Missouri. Hawley's attack on our democracy is completely unacceptable and we need somebody in Missouri's other seat that can get the job done for Missouri because he can't. He cannot. I want to focus on taking care of Missouri in the U.S. Senate."

Sifton believes voters will be looking to the future in August 2022 as well as November next year when they had to the polls.

"I think the economy is going to be the dominant issue and I think people are going to be impressed with the extent to which Joe Biden has America back to work from the pandemic and all of the economic growth and jobs and work that we're going to see going into the 2022 election," he said. "I think people are going to be impressed and we're going to have a strong economy."

Closer to home, Medicaid expansion is one area in which he has disagreed with the way the issue was handled.

"I think it's up to the people of the state of Missouri to hold their elected leaders accountable next November and, whether legislators voted in favor or not of funding

Medicaid expansion, it ought to be one of the first questions any voter asks any candidate," he said. "I not only supported Medicaid expansion, I offered the amendment on the floor on several different occasions to add it to different legislation that was pending. Republicans never took me up on it, but I fought for Medicaid expansion in Jefferson City."

The measure was approved by a 53-46 percent margin in August 2020 though seven counties and the city of St. Louis were in favor. Locally, nearly 72 percent of Perry County voters (3,113 of 4,327) were against the measure.

Regardless of what those elected to office at the state capitol think, Sifton said the voters of the state favored the decision to expand Medicaid and the legislature needs to find a way to make it happen.

"The voters are boss, and the legislature needs to do as the voters have told them," he said.

More recently, Sifton pointed to an infrastructure bill adopted in the U.S. Senate with 18 Republican votes, including Blunt.

"That bill is in the House of Representatives," he said. "Hopefully, we will have the conclusion to that in the coming weeks. there is substantial broadband funding in that bill, including specifically for Missouri to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars...The question will be how quickly can be get it?"

Sifton understands many rural areas struggle with broadband internet service.

"I am acutely aware of communities that don't have the broadband access that they would like to have," Sifton noted.

He hopes the issue will be "remedied and rectified." He added the state needs to ensure the money goes for the improvements it's meant to assist with.

"Hopefully, we'll see very significant progress made under Joe Biden in the infrastructure bill," Sifton said.