Hummel kicks off campaign for 4th District Senate seat

As Missouri House minority leader, he led efforts to defeat RTW, paycheck deception

By TIM ROWDEN

Editor

A recent campaign kickoff for Missouri State Representative Jake Hummel, the Democratic nominee for the 4th Senate District seat drew Democratic officeholders, union members, staffers and supporters at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1 Hall in St. Louis.

They turned out to show their support for Hummel, a Local 1 electrician and the state AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, in his upcoming general election bid against Republican Bryan Young for the Senate seat formerly held by Senator Joe Keaveny.

Keaveny vacated the seat after being appointed by Governor Jay Nixon to be a workers’ compensation administrative law judge in St. Louis.

A special election to fill the seat will be held on Nov. 8, the same day as the presidential and other statewide and legislative races.

The District is overwhelmingly Democratic. Keaveny won his two elections to the Senate in 2010 and 2014 with well over 70 percent of the vote in both races.

Nixon attended the event and thanked Hummel for his work in the House.

“Wherever I sit with Jake Hummel, wherever he is his district and the people he works with are in the forefront of what he thinks, what he does and how he acts,” Nixon told the 100-plus in attendance. “These days, in the business we’re in, it’s hard to find people as pure on their issues, on their constituents and why they’re in elective in office as Jake Hummel.

“There is no stronger advocate than Representative Jake Hummel… when I have gone to the floor and needed an ally,” Nixon said.

As minority floor leader, Hummel worked across the aisle to find wins, leading efforts to sustain Gov. Nixon’s vetoes on anti-worker legislation like so-called “right-to-work” and paycheck deception, despite facing a Republican supermajority in the House.

“Some issues stand out. Some issues rise up to the occasion that you get a fire inside you. You get angry. You get passionate about them,” Hummel said. “The reason I ran was to protect the men and women I work with every day.”

Hummel also cited another Democratic victory: the defeat of SJR 39, the so-called religious freedom bill, which he called “strictly discrimination.”

“When we’re able to stop the bad things, that’s what we take the most pride in,” he said.