Rep. Ashley Aune listens to House Minority Floor Leader Crystal Quade during a press conference held at eh Missouri State Capitol Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024 in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)

Earlier this month, Missouri House Minority Leader Ashley Aune (D-Kansas City) spoke with WCPT’s Patti Vasquez about the state GOP’s likely attempt to further gerrymander the state to benefit President Donald Trump next year.

Local reports from last month show that Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) looks more and more willing to accept the state Freedom Caucus’ request to a special session to address redistricting, just three years after the legislature approved new congressional maps. The proposed map that would be used next year projects to give Republicans seven out of the state’s eight House seats. Currently, Republicans control six out of the eight.

Aune noted that Democrats make up a superminority in the state, but it is still there job to make noise about issues like gerrymandering and Republicans overturning popular ballot initiatives.

“We ran for office knowing we were going to lose almost every single fight we got into, but it is our job to hold the line,” Aune said. “And so, we keep showing up, we keep fighting, we keep raising all of the alarm bells that we can to make sure that voters understand what’s happening, and in the meantime, we are working as hard as possible to flip enough seats to end that supermajority.”

The minority leader also said that Missourians are starting to become sick of Republican rule after the state GOP controlling both chambers of the General Assembly since 2003.

“The Missouri GOP has been in charge for more than 20 years and what do they have to show for it?” Aune asked. “We are constantly at the very bottom of the list in terms of teacher pay or maternal mortality rate, and Missourians are tired of being at the bottom of the list. We want to be leaders. We’re the ‘Show Me State.’ And frankly, like I said, voters are tired of it.”

Below is the full transcript of the interview. (Please note: The transcript has been edited for clarity.)

Patti Vasquez: We are about to have Minority House Leader Aune, who has been really making the rounds and having conversations. Let me play, as we wait for her to come on the line, because I know that she’s extremely busy, but I want to play a little bit of something she said in Boston.

State Rep. Ashley Aune: [From video.] What I keep reminding my Republican colleagues across the aisle is that Donald Trump is a president, he is not a dictator, he is not a king, but he is an authoritarian. And I’m tired of him calling up Missouri and saying jump, and every Missourian saying, all right, Daddy Trump, how high? Whatever you say. [Audience calls of “Shame.”] Shame. That’s exactly right. The Republicans who I work with, who are, in September, going to be called into, back into the legislature to vote on a 7-1 map, rather than the 6-2 map we currently have, I want to ask every single one of them, where was your vote in 2022 when we did this last time? Twenty-three House members in Missouri voted for a 7-1 map. Only 23 out of 163 of us. They’re all going to pour in. They’re going to do exactly what Daddy Trump told them to. They’re going to hit that button and they’re going to give us a 7-1 map in Missouri. Fifty-eight percent of Missouri voted for Trump, but they want to send an 87 percent representation to Congress. It’s bullshit, and we won’t stand for it in Missouri. [End of video.]

Patti Vasquez: I have a new hero, and it is Leader Aune. Hello, Leader. How are you doing today?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: I’m doing well. I’m doing well. Thank you for having me on.

Patti Vasquez: Holy smokes. First of all, I want to get to know you, if you don’t mind. Where did you grow up, my friend?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Well, I was born in Colorado, raised in Lenexa, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City, and ended up on the Missouri side of the state line after college, and I am proud to serve here in Missouri now.

Patti Vasquez: What was this path to being a representative in the state of Missouri?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Well, you know, I’ve always been a little politically interested. I should say I was raised by a Republican father and a Democrat mother. They used to link arms on Election Day and say, ‘We’re going to go cancel each other’s votes out.’ And I grew up in that environment, and I’ve always been really passionate. I’ve known I was a Democrat since I could identify with a political party, and I’ve just been really interested ever since.

But my background is in marketing and communications. I never really thought that I was a politician. That was never on my radar. But the older I got, the more I saw what was happening in politics and in my state and across the country. I kind of decided I couldn’t scream into the void any longer. I couldn’t just hope someone else was going to do something, that it was up to me to step up and do something myself. So I started getting involved, and immediately was asked to run for office. And five years later, here I am, the minority leader in Missouri.

Patti Vasquez: Wow. You’re screaming into a different void, although it’s not a void, really, because you’re behind those doors where the conversations are happening, whether they’re — if the Republican caucus is meeting, obviously you’re not.

But I have to ask you, what are your colleagues across the aisle — are they all in on this? Is there any sign that some of them are like, well, this is crazy, at all?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Outwardly, I’m hearing a lot of support for it. I think that behind closed doors, amongst themselves, there’s a lot of concern about what this could mean long term and if this is good for democracy. But I also think that the short term.

What is the benefit of doing this, short term? Well, it’s protecting yourself, insulating yourself from Trump, who could come after you, who could come after the entire state, who could [influence our] senators or our governor. We’re currently relying on a lot of federal dollars, not only for health care, Medicaid, all those sorts of things, but we had a huge disaster in St. Louis with a tornado a few months ago, and we’ve seen him withhold disaster funding for places he doesn’t like. And we can’t put ourselves in that position. And so, there are so many reasons.

There’s so many really messed up incentives for the Republicans in our state to play ball here. I’m not sure. I’m not sure, but it definitely sounds like we are barreling towards a 7-1 map here in Missouri.

Patti Vasquez: Man, and you already have this situation in Missouri where the people of Missouri, not just the voters but the people of Missouri — I don’t care what the accusations are, that they’re outsiders, they don’t have skin in the game, all these things — said repeatedly — you’ve had these resolutions come before the voters and they have said they want reproductive rights; they want paid leave. For every 30 hours that they work, they earn an hour of paid leave for illness or for themselves or their children. And the governor has taken the voice of the people away.

How do you get through the days, Leader, Aune? (Laughs.) This is crazy.

State Rep. Ashley Aune: It is crazy. It is crazy, because every single time I turn around in the Missouri legislature, there is another attempt to undo the will of the voters. My first year, Republicans tried to claw back the Medicaid expansion that voters voted in. Now, we are putting an abortion ban back on the ballot, after last November when Missourians told their lawmakers that they believed that abortion should be in our constitution. They are putting it back on the ballot because they didn’t get their way. Same thing with Prop A, the paid sick leave [law]. They just completely overturned it, which threw workers into a lot of confusion because it took them so long to overturn this statute that it had already gone into effect. There are workers who were earning towards their paid sick leave and all of a sudden had that taken away from them by the Republican supermajority here.

So you asked, how do I do it? Honestly, it’s exhausting. (Laughs.) My colleagues and I, we’re in a superminority. We ran for office knowing we were going to lose almost every single fight we got into, but it is our job to hold the line. And so, we keep showing up, we keep fighting, we keep raising all of the alarm bells that we can to make sure that voters understand what’s happening, and in the meantime, we are working as hard as possible to flip enough seats to end that supermajority.

Patti Vasquez: Do you see that path forward? We talk to Jess Piper as often as we possibly can, because I know she’s busy making sure that legislators like you are supported, that voters who have the morals to fight for the working people, for women’s reproductive rights, for just the respect and dignity for all. Do you see a path forward for flipping some of those seats?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Absolutely I do. Yeah. The headwinds are with us this year, or this cycle, in Missouri. We can see what’s happening on a national level, but Missouri voters are frustrated. They have seen, over and over again, the electeds going down to Jefferson City completely ignoring what they wanted, what they said they wanted very explicitly at the ballot box previously. And frankly, I think that Missourians are getting fed up with it.

The other side of that is just that the Missouri GOP has been in charge for more than 20 years, and what do they have to show for it? We are constantly at the very bottom of the list in terms of teacher pay or maternal mortality rate, and Missourians are tired of being at the bottom of the list. We want to be leaders. We’re the “Show Me State.” And frankly, like I said, voters are tired of it.

They’re listening to Democrats. Democrats are the ones showing up. We’re the ones hosting town halls and we’re the ones going door to door talking to voters about why it’s so important to cast a vote in November of 2026. So I definitely do believe we’ll end that supermajority.

Patti Vasquez: We are talking to state representative Ashley Aune. She is the minority House leader for the state of Missouri in the House. I have so my questions and I hope I can get them in in the next segment. (Laughs.) I hope my brain softens a little bit because I have so much rage and I am so grateful for your voice and for your leadership.

Leader Aune, I have a question. Is there an opportunity to do radio for you? Is it mostly television? I know that we are using social media, but people forget how important this medium is.

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Yeah. We talk a lot with our NPR affiliates here in Missouri, so in St. Louis and Kansas City, that’s really the most radio that I do. There’s a lot of conservative talk radio across the state of Missouri, but very few opportunities for Democrats to get our message out.

Patti Vasquez: And so that’s the thing that I wanted to touch on, because you mentioned that your dad was — I don’t want to be insensitive. Is your father still with us?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Yes, he is, and he has been voting with me since 2016.

Patti Vasquez: Really? OK, so my father was a lifelong — that’s not accurate. My father, the last Democrat he had voted for was Adlai Stevenson, until the year before he died. He voted for [Al] Gore. So I think it might be a similar situation, where he just saw where things were going with the Republican Party. Even in 1999 my dad was like absolutely not. And so, to the point about the massive amount of conservative talk — I don’t know if you’re aware. There are 1,500 conservative talk radio stations out there, conservative, plus 700 religious radio stations, and there’s less than 100, and you just mentioned NPR, which is now about to lose funding.

You mentioned going door to door and showing up. We really do need to find ways, aside from social media, to continue to connect with people. So what would you like us to know about how we can help you in any way whatsoever? And I don’t mean just the radio station. I mean our listeners. Where can we go to make sure we’re informed and supporting the work that the Democrats are doing in Missouri?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Well, I really appreciate that question. The [Missouri] House Democrats are working really hard, like I said, to hold the line in Missouri and also flip seats in 2026. The work we do, we try to blast it everywhere. Social media is a huge place for us. We have an incredible team at the Capitol and on our campaign side who help us clip amazing videos that really get our message out and show the fight that we’ve got in us here in Missouri. So all of our social media is a good place to find us.

When we talk about supporting Democrats in Missouri, it’s easy to say, “please donate here.” Mohousedems.com. Please visit us. Check us out. However, what we really need is people to understand the value of showing up in person.

It feels scary for so many people to show up and say, I’m going to knock some doors for you today. It’s really hard for me to get people to help me knock on doors, but I can’t tell you how effective it is. When I show up on someone’s doorstep and I say, ‘Hey, I’m your state representative, I’m curious what’s going on in your life, what are some of the challenges, what are some of the things you’re seeing and how can I make life a little bit easier for you?’ those conversations are so important.

And we need people doing that in droves in 2026. We need people doing that in some of our districts right now to make sure that voters understand what’s at stake and so that we can talk to them several times before they hit the ballot box in November of [20]26. So helping us fundraise, yes. Help us share our message. That’s the biggest thing. Help us increase our platform on social media. Share the content you see. When we’re standing up at these press conferences or we’re yelling about something on the floor of the House, share that video, because people need to know what we’re doing and what’s at stake. Because if it can happen in Texas, it can happen in Missouri, and it can happen in your state next.

Patti Vasquez: Absolutely. And it is happening. The conversations that we’ve been having with Jess Piper have — for over three years now we’ve been connecting with her every month, or as often as we can, and she’s kept us up to date on some of these issues, including the minimum wage. Missouri has kept the minimum wage pretty low. To your point about, for the last 20 years, what have Republicans done for you, right? They’ve lowered the age of labor for children, and then basically sold off public school funding to the charter schools? Right?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Yeah. Well, this year, for the first time ever, our governor successfully got $50 million in direct voucher spending to private schools through our budget and it was one of the things we yelled the loudest about this year. And of course, we lost that fight. But that’s exactly what’s happening. They are trying to dismantle our government so they can point to a failing government and say, ‘See? Government doesn’t work.’

That’s the plan. That’s the long-term plan. That’s what’s happening in Missouri. It’s what’s happening all across the country. Trying to dismantle the Department of Education, DOGE-ing all of our departments into oblivion. They’re trying to create a government that doesn’t work so that they can go back and say, look, government doesn’t work. It’s wild, absolutely wild.

Patti Vasquez: I don’t know if you’re familiar with what happened in Illinois, when Gov. [Bruce] Rauner was in office and he slashed all of our support services. And it was the first time I learned — this was in 2015. Honestly, I felt so naive, to your point, that they wanted break it all down and point to it as being dysfunctional, and also, basically wanted to turn it over to nonprofits and charitable organizations, and it shouldn’t be the role the government anyway. And I just didn’t know that. I felt so stupid. (Laughs.) You know what I mean?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Well, when I first realized it — I couldn’t tell you when, but when it first clicked for me that that was really what was going on, I was like, that is brilliant and diabolical and this will end our country. Like, this is what’s wrong with our country, right? How do we combat that, right? It really is hard to message against that. It’s hard to message against Donald Trump and Elon Musk talking about all the waste, fraud and abuse going on when the truth is they’re getting rid of nonpartisan public servants. Lifetime public servants who have, frankly, some of the most boring jobs you can think of in our government. They are here to keep the lights on. They are here to keep things going. They are here to alert us when a natural disaster is about to hit. They’re here to do the boring science behind keeping our communities safe across the country, and across the world, frankly. It’s so frustrating to see it happen, and it’s really devastating to see it happen so effectively here in Missouri.

Patti Vasquez: No doubt. I want to send you a Massage Envy pass or something —

State Rep. Ashley Aune: (Laughs.)

Patti Vasquez:So that at least you can get some respite.

One of our one of our listeners, asked, wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, Republicans be concerned about this backfiring, that they are essentially watering down the power they have in their own districts, as they strive to just claw away another district from the Democrats?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Yes, that’s exactly right. In fact, I keep hearing the phrase “dummymandering” come up, which is when you gerrymander something so poorly it backfires. And that is absolutely something that Republicans should be worried about here in Missouri, because only 58% of Missourians voted for Donald Trump in 2024, but what they’re proposing is that Republicans get 87% representation in Congress from our state, and that discrepancy is so absurd on its face that I just — I don’t know that they can even draw maps that will achieve that for them, especially in a year like 2026 when people are so frustrated. It will be a rebuke to the Trump administration.

I can tell you there are Democrats in the state currently talking about, what will it look like, then, if our bench is called up to run for some congressional seats in 2026, because that may happen, and we’re ready to do it.

Patti Vasquez: And I saw that in the last election, there were more Democrats that were running and challenging Republicans than had in decades. Is that right?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: That’s exactly right. Yeah, we recruited a record number of folks to challenge House seats across the state, and in a year when a lot of people [voted but] red states gained even more seats, Missouri was able to break even last cycle, which I’m really proud of, frankly. Our neighbors in Kansas, they lost three seats, the Democrats did, in the House, and we lost one and we gained one. And I think that that, as bad as it sounds, is a huge win in a year like 2024. And so in [20]26 we fully intend on harnessing as much momentum as we can and breaking that supermajority.

Patti Vasquez: Man, again, I’m going to have to get your email. If you have a Massage Envy near you, I really do have a Massage Envy to gift you. I don’t know if I can do that. I’m not one of your voters. Does it count?

State Rep. Ashley Aune: (Laughs.) Listen, you are not a lobbyist so I can accept that. We joke all the time, but it is so true: It is wild being a Democratic lawmaker in a deep red state like Missouri. We joke all the time about how we need therapy dogs in the Capitol, and that we’re all trauma-bonded together as legislators, because it is hard work.

So thank you for recognizing that because it is. It’s tough. It’s frustrating. It can be thankless, often. We are gone from our families all the time. We took a huge pay cut to do this job. And I had an email yesterday from someone who told me I had flabby arms and I should stay in Massachusetts. (Laughs.)

Patti Vasquez: Yeah, I’ve been getting a lot of those lately. I had someone slide in with a picture of law enforcement that says, ‘We put the ‘panic’ in Hispanic,’ so I’ve been having fun. I get you. Hey, look, you try being one radio host out of 100 compared to the 1,500 conservative talk shows. It’s not nearly the same kind of commitment and work that you’re doing. So I want to reiterate how grateful we are to you, to your colleagues, and we are here for any conversation that you need to have.

And I want to remind folks, it’s mohousedems.com to join them, to donate to the work that they’re doing, to support Minority Leader Aune.

It really is a pleasure to talk to you. And please, we’d love to check in with you again. And I’m not kidding. If you have a Massage Envy near you, I’m sending you that gift certificate.

State Rep. Ashley Aune: (Laughs.) You are so kind. Thank you so much.

Patti Vasquez: No, seriously. I can’t use them all. I stocked up some so I have a couple, so it’s yours.

State Rep. Ashley Aune: (Laughs.) Thank you much. I appreciate it.

Patti Vasquez: Thank you, Leader Aune. You take care of yourself, pace yourself, and again, know that we’re here for you for anything.

State Rep. Ashley Aune: Awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much. You have a wonderful day.