Not an empty seat could be found Thursday evening as a crowd filled the North Community Building in Iola for the meeting of the Allen County Blue Dot Club — a monthly gathering of pro-democracy citizens. The club, sponsored by the Allen County Democratic Party, gathered to hear a fiery presentation from Missouri State Representative nominee Jess Piper.
“I never planned to do this ever in my life,” started Piper.
Born and raised in rural Arkansas, Piper received degrees in English and Teaching from the University of Arkansas and put them to use as an American Literature teacher for 16 years. She is a mother to five and grandmother to three and lives on a small farm on the Missouri/Iowa border.
Two things bolstered Piper to go into politics — the 2016 election of President Donald Trump and the abortion ban that Missouri passed in 2018. “It was already bad enough because there was only one abortion clinic in the entire state. It’s five and a half hours from where I live,” explained Piper. “When people talk about abortion bans, they need to understand that rural women have been under abortion bans for decades. We have not had access to health care for decades.”
When her representative signed the ban, Piper knew she needed to reach out to him to voice her concerns. After many unanswered calls, texts, and emails, Piper decided to write a rebuttal in the local paper. “I outed myself as a teacher who believes in women’s rights,” she said. “It went as well as you can imagine.”
After still no response from her representative, she had her husband call him and leave a message. “Twenty minutes later, I got a phone call — it was him,” she said. “I lit into him — I was angry. He told me two things: ‘Jess, I don’t have to talk to you,’ and ‘I called you out of a favor to your husband.’”
Following this interaction, Piper said she knew “it was enough” and that she wasn’t going to tolerate being treated that way. “I decided I wasn’t going to run for office yet because in Missouri you can’t run as a teacher or you’ll lose your job,” she said. “I needed to be paid — I’m not independently wealthy.”
After realizing her limited options of candidates in the 2020 election, Piper’s frustrations grew. “I went and voted for Joe Biden in 2020, but then I couldn’t vote for anybody else because there was not a single Democrat running down ballot,” she said. “I went home and told my husband that I’d had enough and I was going to run for office.”
IN 2022, she ran for State Representative in District 1 in Northwest Missouri. She was not successful, but used the experience to organize progressives in rural Missouri. Although she lost the race, she continues her activism and is Executive Director of Blue Missouri — an organization that raises and distributes money to Democratic nominees for Missouri state legislatures. She also hosts a weekly podcast called “Dirt Road Democrat.”
Piper says she learned a great deal from the experience. “People deserve to have options,” she said. “There are people all over this country who will look at counties like this and they’ll say, ‘You get what you vote for.’ Well, friends, who did I have to vote for? There was no one on my ballot. That’s where we need to stand up and say if the Democrats want to do better, they’re gonna have to come to places like rural Kansas. They’re going to have to tell you what they can do for you. That’s what we’ve been missing in the Democrat Party.”
Piper highlighted several talking points during her presentation, including the lack of child care options. “I live in Missouri, where 50% of the counties are in a child care desert,” she said. “We have people who are missing work. People who can’t make their bills because they don’t have daycare. It is not by accident — we do not have the infrastructure on purpose. It is to keep someone at home.”
She pointed to the fact that 30% of Missouri schools use a four-day week model. “Good luck trying to find daycare one day a week,” she said. She added that the four-day week was presented as a “good” thing that would allow kids to learn everyday skills on their day off. “Yeah — they’re working or babysitting somebody else’s kid who isn’t in school that day,” she said. “These things are purposeful.”
AS A FORMER educator, Piper is passionate about speaking on education. “On the drive over here, President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education,” she said.
People still are confused about the department’s function, she added.
“Many people think they write ‘woke’ curriculum,” she said. “They don’t write any curriculum. That is done at the state and local level. Your teachers and administrators are the ones who are writing the curriculum. The Department of Education made sure that everyone with a disability was able to be in school. Rural schools are going to be hit the hardest.”
