Statement to Caucus

My prepared remarks to the Missouri House Democratic Caucus in advance of the expulsion proceedings

I have appreciated the opportunity to work as a Missouri Democrat since I was elected in 2016. I believe the charges against me are a character assassination from a wing of the party that I want nothing to do with. I do not believe anyone is being honest about the reasons they want to remove me from the House Democratic Caucus.

I believe we have done some good work as a party, and I have been proud to work within this caucus. But I failed to do my research before I ran. I fear that other very good people, who consider themselves Democrats, may have done the research I failed to do, and decided not to run because of it.

In 2008, it was reported that “the state Republican Party has a tally on its Web site of Democrats charged with crimes.” If I had known how much criminality there was within our party, I probably wouldn’t have run for office. I am bringing this up now to let people know that this criminality will no longer be tolerated.

I knew that Jeff Smith, who is now a lobbyist, spent a year in prison for obstruction of justice, which was a conspiracy charge. But I hadn’t realized that John Bowman, who was head of the UAW when I first ran and now heads the NAACP, was charged with felony bank fraud in 2007, along with 16 other defendants, and pled guilty to misdemeanor bank fraud. T. D. El-Amin was charged in 2009 and pled guilty to taking a bribe from a gas station owner. All of their plea agreements are still sealed.

Since I was elected, the former chair of the Missouri Democratic Party, Mike Sanders, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Courtney Curtis, whose office was next to mine in 2017, pleaded guilty to felony wire fraud for actions taken during that time. And more recently, St. Louis aldermen Jeffrey Boyd, John Collins-Muhammed, and Lewis Reed pleaded guilty to racketeering charges for taking bribes from a gas station owner. As a caucus, we have not addressed these issues. However, we have kicked Bob Burns out for working publicly with people we don’t like, as you seem to be doing to me here.

The preferred Democratic candidate for the Missouri AG’s race right now seems to be Elad Gross, who has never won a race and whose mother tweeted in support of MAGA and Trump2024 hashtags just last week. Gross has stated that his mother works on his campaigns.

I hope you will not kick me out of the Missouri House Democratic Caucus. I plan to continue my work to make Missouri a better place for families and children. But whatever happens today, I will remain a member of Joe Biden’s democratic party.