Maryville
Understanding Effective Leadership
People are so starved for leadership in Missouri, they don’t recognize it when they see it.
My friend Jess Piper is running in what many consider to be an “unwinnable” race in Maryville, Missouri. You may have seen her on Tiktok or Twitter. She’s running because she has seen her community decline through lack of resources and investment and wants to turn that around.
In the past few weeks, she has been criticized because of the support she has received from around the country. Jess has really ignited excitement with her message, and people want to support her for what she’s doing. Now, she is taking flack for using the money people have sent to her campaign and not using it to support other “winnable” races.
First, let me say we have no data. There has never been a Democratic (or Republican, for that matter) campaign to work so hard for her community in that area. When people are saying this race can’t be won, the only information we have is that the race can’t be won by a generic D vs. a generic R on the ballot.
But Nodaway County and HD-1 has won just by having Jess campaign. By having her as a presence and a leader in her community.
I went to Maryville on May 14, 2022 - the day after session ended and a little over a week after the draft Dobbs decision was leaked. Jess was holding a reproductive rights rally, and I needed to take a breath after session before I returned home. A quick trip to Maryville was exactly what I needed.
And here’s what happened because of my trip to Maryville:
As an elected official, I experienced an area of the state that I would not have visited otherwise. I saw the adorable, but empty, downtown square. I felt the potholes in the road. I heard from parents what it means to them to have 4-day-a-week school. And I got to meet people I would not otherwise have gotten to meet.
The community came together to support a cause they would otherwise have been afraid to express support for. There were 50-75 people who showed up for that rally, in a deep red city of 4,000. They got to know each other and form a community of people who care about shared interests. We need more community in this world.
As a leader in my own community, I talked to Jess about leadership. About how to get the city to care and bring in resources. About how to get people involved in local government, to fix the potholes and to advocate for a better education system.
And partly because of this trip, I took a trip in September to rural south-central Missouri to meet with people and learn about their communities.
Jess’s campaign has served her community and the country, whether or not she wins. She has taught people about issues. She has used the money she has brought in from across the country to invest in people in her community.
It’s not about winning a race. It’s about serving her community. And Jess has done an excellent job of this
.