Politically Speaking

Illinois U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, said she’s not taking anything for granted in her first reelection bid this November. “We're working really hard throughout the district to tell the story of the work that we've been doing in this first term and making the case for the work that I want to continue to be doing,” Budzinski said on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking podcast.

While Illinois’ 13th Congressional District could be a swing district, stretching from a majority of the Metro East to Springfield and Urbana-Champaign, electoral experts have it rated as a safe or solid Democratic seat this election cycle.

On the latest episode of Politically Speaking, Missouri Chamber of Commerce's interim President Kara Corches explains why her organization is opposing Proposition A. That measure would raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 and institute mandatory sick time for employers.

On the latest episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, former Missouri Ethics Commission executive director Liz Ziegler joins the show to answer a slew of listener questions about the state's byzantine campaign finance laws. Also on the program: Democrat Lucas Kunce makes the case about why he has a chance against GOP Sen. Josh Hawley. And the state's trade union members talk about how they're approaching the 2024 election.

On paper, Illinois’ 13th Congressional District could be winnable for a Republican, but it will be an uphill battle for Joshua Loyd, who’s hoping to unseat incumbent Nikki Budzinski in November.

The biggest factor working against Loyd, R-Virden, is cash. At the end of the second quarter, Budzinski, D-Springfield, held a 123 to 1 fundraising advantage over her GOP challenger in the race to represent the district which stretches from the Metro East to Urbana-Champaign.

“I'm not concerned at all with the finances because I'm actually out there talking with individuals,” Loyd said on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking podcast. “This is not necessarily a money game. People always say it's about the money. No, it's about being analytical, understanding where to put your effort.”

On the latest episode of Politically Speaking, author Heather McGhee talks about her support for a ballot item raising Missouri’s minimum wage.

McGhee is a New York-based attorney who wrote the New York Times best-selling book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Part of her work involved following the movement in Missouri to raise the minimum wage, particularly in the Kansas City area.

“I wanted to come back and see what was going on, and I'm really thrilled to see the amount of broad-based support for something that should be common sense, which is that people should not work all day and come home in poverty,” McGhee said. And they should be able to earn sick time to take care of themselves and their loved ones.”

On the latest episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, STLPR's Jason Rosenbaum talks with St. Louis County election directors Eric Fey and Rick Stream about GOP secretary of state nominee Denny Hoskins' push to hand count ballots. Rosenbaum also talked with voters in Illinois and Missouri who are getting involved in this year's presidential election — even though the results in each state are not in doubt. Rosenbaum also caught up with Wake Up to Politics' Gabe Fleischer, who has been writing about politics since he was a 9-year-old St. Louis County resident.

Rep. Richard Brown, Assistant Missouri House Minority Floor Leader, returns to the show. The Kansas City democrat joins St. Louis Public Radio's Sarah Kellogg and Jason Rosenbaum to talk about his candidacy for Lt. Governor.

Democrat Randi McCallian is once again running for Missouri’s 8th Congressional District seat, a swath of southeast and southern Missouri that’s been represented by Republicans since the 1980s.

Even McCallian admits her run against GOP Congressman Jason Smith is an uphill battle.The 8th District used to have significant pockets of Democratic voters, particularly in the Bootheel region. But Donald Trump’s emergence supercharged the district’s drift to the GOP — a trend that McCallian said hasn’t been good for people who live in the district.

“Politics is now what I do, because people deserve to have a government that is made up by them and working for them,” McCallian said on an episode of Politically Speaking. “And that's not what we have here in Missouri — or especially in the 8th Congressional District.”

On this week's episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum talks with veteran political journalist Jo Mannies about the history of presidential debates at Washington University. Rosenbaum also talked about the upcoming presidential election with four students at MICDS. And Rosenbaum welcomes historian Cassandra Good onto the program to talk about the history of nepotism in American politics.

State Rep. Barbara Phifer declined to run for another term in the Missouri House, even though she was eligible to spend four more years in the General Assembly’s lower chamber.

But the Kirkwood Democrat chose instead to run for secretary of state. While the race for that office typically doesn’t get as much attention as the U.S. Senate or governor, Phifer said the stakes are high enough for her to throw her hat into the statewide electoral arena.

“This is the single most important statewide race in Missouri this year, and I could see that a year and a half ago,” Phifer said on an episode of St. Louis Public Radio’s Politically Speaking. “And so I told my husband, even as I was planning to retire: ‘Honey, you just need to know that if we don't have somebody on the Democratic side with experience who's running for secretary of state, I'm going to do that.”