Rep. Trish Gunby said in her announcement that voters deserved someone in Congress who is more in touch with the St. Louis-area district — a swipe at U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, who has held the seat since 2013.

“We deserve more visible, accountable leadership from our elected officials,” Gunby, 60, said in a news release. “It’s what I’ve provided as a state rep, and it’s what I’ll deliver as our next congresswoman.”

Though Gunby has a higher profile than Ben Samuels, the first Democrat to announce, it is unclear whether any Democrat who emerges from the August 2022 party primary could be competitive in the 2nd after district boundaries are redrawn.

Wagner defeated tough challengers in the past two general elections, growing her winning margin from four percentage points in 2018 to six percentage points in 2020, as GOP candidates tied their opponents to controversial policy positions, such as “defund the police,” advanced by Democratic progressives.  

This year, Republicans in the Legislature and GOP Gov. Mike Parson will control the redrawing of the state’s eight U.S. congressional seats. 

Because of continued population loss in the city of St. Louis, the heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, will likely take in more areas of the current 2nd.  

That means the 2nd could extend farther into GOP-friendly St. Charles or Jefferson counties, making the district less favorable to Democrats than in the past.

Wagner has not said whether she will seek another term in the U.S. House or if she will join the crowded field vying for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Wagner jumping into the Senate race could trigger a wave of campaign announcements from other Republicans seeking to replace her in the House.

Gunby’s campaign said her bid would be focused on “building relationships and unifying a region fractured by hostile, partisan politics.”

The announcement said Gunby would “put Missouri’s families and workers first” through policies that benefit organized labor, “expand voting rights and reimagine how Americans receive affordable, quality health care.”

“For years, Congress has been more interested in name-calling and showboating than making real, substantial change,” Gunby said. “Well, I’m a different sort of candidate, less interested in talking and more interested in doing the work.” 

According to a news release, Gunby has lived in the 2nd Congressional District for more than 25 years. Before politics she was an advocate for causes including LGBTQ and voting rights, and racial justice, the release said.

She and her husband, Mark, have two adult children, Kyle and Bryn, the release said.

Gunby, during her short time in Missouri politics, has succeeded while other Democrats have failed.

In 2019 she won a special election to represent west St. Louis County’s 99th District in the Missouri House, which had been represented by Rep. Jean Evans, who resigned to work as executive director of the Missouri Republican Party.

Gunby survived the 2020 election cycle, defeating Republican Lee Ann Pitman by 406 votes, even as other high-profile west county Democrats were defeated — one of the few bright spots for Missouri Democrats on election night.

Gunby in 2019 also used the services of Rosetta Okohson, founder and CEO of MO Political Consulting, who has worked for multiple candidates that have pulled off wins in recent years.

In addition to steering Gunby’s bid, Okohson worked on the campaigns of Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and state Rep. Paula Brown, who also flipped a seat in the Missouri House.

Okohson said in 2019 that Gunby appealed to voters who had not heard a strong Democratic message in the 99th District. She also attributed the win to Gunby’s robust canvassing efforts and said negative mailers by Republicans seemed to backfire.

MO Political Consulting was working on Gunby’s congressional campaign.

In the Missouri House, Gunby proposed a dozen bills this year, but none gained any traction, a common fate for Democratic-proposed bills in the GOP-controlled chamber.

While some Democrats are effective at amending bills on the House floor, an analysis by GovWatch, a nonpartisan government monitoring service, said all three amendments Gunby offered this year were defeated.

Gunby said that “because I flipped a seat, I was told that it would be unlikely that my legislation would advance. That’s proven to be true.”

But she said one of her proposals this year — a tax credit to offset sales tax paid on “gun safety mechanisms” — was proposed by a Republican in 2020. Another Republican pushed a bill this year similar to Gunby’s that would put in place rental protections for people with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Samuels, 30, who announced his candidacy last month, most recently worked as director of special projects under Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. He currently resides in Creve Coeur.