You could say that state Rep. Stephen Webber is used to getting questions about how his age parlays with his ability to succeed in politics.
While working at the Columbia Daily Tribune in 2008, I was the first reporter to call Webber when he announced his candidacy for a Columbia-based state House seat. He was 24 when he jumped into the race, the youngest possible age someone could be to run for the Missouri House.
Since I’d seen other 20-something candidates run for Columbia-based offices and lose badly, I was a bit skeptical that Webber could break the trend. It was this backdrop that prompted me, a clueless 23-year-old reporter, to ask Webber, “Are you really serious about this?”
Webber was quite serious about getting to Jefferson City. He scooped up top-flight endorsements, raised tens of thousands of dollars and easily beat his Democratic opponent. He went on to serve four terms in the Missouri House before narrowly losing a state Senate race earlier this year.
But Webber isn’t fading quietly into the political night. He was elected Saturday as chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party. And the 33-year-old attorney and Marine Corps veteran’s youth is getting notice once again, as he became the first millennial to lead a major political party in Missouri. In fact, Webber, vice chairwoman Genevieve Williams, secretary Clem Smith and treasurer Lauren Arthur are all under 40 years old.
(It should be noted that most of the Republican statewide ticket, including Gov.-elect Eric Greitens, are Generation Xers. And incoming Attorney General Josh Hawley was born on Dec. 31, 1979, making him an almost-millennial.)
All four of the new officers ran for office at a time when Democrats are a low point in the legislature and in statewide offices. And Webber is motivated to change that course.
“When your party loses a presidential election or you lose a governor’s race, you’ve got to figure out what sort of changes you can make and things you can do better,” Webber said. “And part of having a young, aggressive leadership team is that we want to change the way the Missouri Democratic Party works. We want to do a better job making inroads with younger generations. But we also want to do a better job making inroads with really everywhere.”
We talked about his priorities and focuses for his two-year term as chairman. Questions and answers below were edited for clarity and length.
Jason Rosenbaum: A lot of Democrats are looking at the map from last month and just seeing how poorly the party did in outstate Missouri. Is improving the party’s standing there going to be one of your priorities?
Stephen Webber: There’s been a debate in the Democratic Party on whether we should focus on winning back rural voters or turning out votes in the cities. And the answer is we need to move forward in every direction. We don’t have a governor. We have a Republican president. We’ve got superminorities in both legislative bodies here in Missouri. So we need to push forward on all fronts.
Cydney Mayfield was elected chair of the rural caucus. She’s from Cooper County. She’s somebody I’ve worked with in the past. And absolutely a priority is showing up in rural areas, listening to rural Democratic voices, and making sure we field more candidates just across the board in 2018.
Jason Rosenbaum: Indeed, 2018 is going to be a significant election cycle for your party. State Auditor Nicole Galloway could face a tough Republican opponent. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill will be up for re-election. Is making sure Galloway and McCaskill have robust support going to be a major focus for the party?
Stephen Webber: Yes, re-electing Claire McCaskill is the number one Democratic priority in 2018. And we do that by establishing a strong party all across the state. No one part of the state can be counted on to pull all their weight, and no part of the state can be ignored. We’ve got to make advances everywhere.
Republicans control everything in government now. Everything at the federal level. Everything at the state level. And they have no one to point fingers at. We’re going to hold them accountable for the policies they pursue. And we’re going to make sure that people have a really clear choice in 2018.
Jason Rosenbaum: It brings to mind what happened throughout the mid-2000s, when Republicans captured most of Missouri’s statewide offices and had decent-sized majorities in the legislature. While they passed a lot of bills, they also generated a lot of controversy – and that allowed Democrats to regroup and win statewide offices in 2008.
Stephen Webber: It’s been interesting to go over the history of Missouri politics. In 1988, U.S. Sen. John Danforth won with nearly 68 percent of the popular vote against Jay Nixon. And people said Nixon’s career was over and that Democrats were in trouble. And then came 1992. Democrats swept almost everything. And in 2008, Democrats had everything that year except lieutenant governor. And now Republicans have everything except state auditor and a U.S. Senate. Our job is to make sure that Democrats win sooner rather than later.
Edited for length and reprinted with permission from news.stlpublicradio.org.
