Missouri voters have never elected an African American to statewide office, and the only African American elected to nationwide office, President Barack Obama, has never carried the state. Yet the Rev. Tommie Pierson has foregone running for what would be his final term as state representative and announced his plan to file instead for lieutenant governor – and insists that he can win.
Pierson lives in Bellefontaine Neighbors and represents Missouri House District 66, a boot-shaped district that hugs the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in northeastern St. Louis County (and also includes a chunk of the Baden neighborhood of the City of St. Louis). His church, Greater St. Mark Family Church, is located in a little town called Ferguson, about a mile from where Michael Brown Jr. was killed. During the Ferguson unrest, his church became a safe haven for protestors and organizers.
Pierson’s voting record is consistently progressive. He even voted for Senate Bill 5, which lowered the ceiling for how much revenue municipalities can collect through traffic tickets, despite the opposition the bill faced from leaders of small St. Louis County municipalities like those in Pierson’s district.
“Traffic tickets are killing our people in the county,” Pierson told The American. “Go to any municipal court, and it’s full of African Americans. I thought that was wrong and needs to be stopped.”
His bona fides as an African-American progressive far predate the Ferguson unrest. He sat down on I-70 in 1999 during the protest over exclusion of minority contractors from equal economic opportunity. He is a past president of Metropolitan Congregations United, a progressive group of mostly white clergy. As MCU president, he chaired a committee that negotiated minority workforce diversity goals for the massive I-64 overhaul in 2007-9.
“I went to Jefferson City and met with the commissioners and laid out the plan and began to sell it to everybody,” Pierson told The American.
He is, however, also a union man. He retired after working 32 years at General Motors, where he served as union representative for the United Auto Workers local. He first fought against Right to Work legislation back in 1978, long before he was a state representative, and voted against it in the House last year. He likely will vote against it again next year, as a Right to Work bill has been pre-filed for next session.
“I’ll get that union support,” Pierson said – something not every black Democrat says with confidence. “I’ll get it big time.”
He kicked off his campaign in a union setting – at the Communications Workers of America Local 6300 in Maryland Heights.
As an African-American progressive from a union background with a 100 percent rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League, Pierson is both a black Democrat and a true blue Democrat. Add to those credentials the unlikely background of farming.
Pierson was raised by older cousins in Lauderdale County, Tennessee, right across the Mississippi River from the Missouri Bootheel. (His mother died when he was four, and his father was an alcoholic disconnected from his family.) With his cousins Edmonia Henderson and Charlie Henderson, he used to catch a truck across the river to Kennett, Missouri to pick cotton.
“I grew up a farmer,” Pierson told The American. “I understand the needs of farmers. I’ve been to the Bootheel and interacted with farmers. I think many will vote for me.”
Pierson moved to St. Louis alone at the age of 17 and started working at General Motors. He soon dropped out of Beaumont High School after a teacher with whom he did not get along failed him in English. “I was making more money than she was at GM,” he told The American. “I didn’t think it was that important.” He later changed his mind and studied to earn his general equivalency diploma. He went on to serve for seven years on the Riverview Gardens school board, and all three of his children have college degrees.
So, as a progressive black Democrat and member of the clergy with street credibility, as well as both a union and a farming background, Pierson is truly a unique candidate who might possibly appeal to enough disparate constituencies to be electable statewide – if he can raise a whole lot of money.
Pierson said he needs to raise $1.5 million to be competitive. He has never raised more than $25,000. Asked if he had anyone on his campaign team with that kind of fundraising background, he said no.
In the Democratic primary, he is likely to face Brad Bradshaw, a trial lawyer in Springfield who also has a medical degree (and his own branded barbecue sauce). As of his last campaign report, Bradshaw had already loaned his campaign $360,000 and raised more than $300,000 (in a mix that includes in-kind contributions).
It is rumored that they may also face former congressman Russ Carnahan in the Democratic primary. However, Bradshaw’s campaign treasurer is Bradley Ketcher, a longtime Carnahan associate (he was chief of staff for Gov. Mel Carnahan). If Carnahan’s inner circle were aware of his intentions to run, it’s not likely Ketcher would still be aligned with Bradshaw.
As for the Missouri Democratic Party – which has a policy of staying out of primaries, but a practice of interfering in them selectively – Pierson said, “I tried to reach out to them, but they have not reached to me.”
Like most black elected officials in the state, Pierson finds fault in state party leadership. “Over the last few years, the party has not played the role they should have played, and that contributed to the massive loss of House seats,” he said. “There are demographics out there that they’ve just overlooked.”
No statewide elected Democrat has embraced him. His list of current supporters includes U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, Missouri House Minority Leader Jake Hummel, three state senators (Kiki Curls, Scott Sifton and Gina Walsh) and three prominent clergy members: Rabbi Susan Talve, Pastor Traci Blackmon and Bishop Lawrence Wooten.
As for his soon-to-be-former state rep seat, Pierson has made an early endorsement: His son Tommie Pierson Jr. plans to file.
