When Brett Murphy moved to Clinton last February and went to register to vote, he was told that 85 percent of Henry County was red, meaning the voters identified with the Republican Party.
Brett’s thought: “We need to change that.”
So he called around, looking for other Democrats, and discovered that the Henry County Democratic Central Committee and the local Democrats Club had faded away during the COVID epidemic.
“The last Facebook post was months old,” he said, “The last meeting was in 2021.”
Deciding to do something, Murphy organized a meeting and posted notice of it on Facebook. Held last Friday, Aug. 9, the afternoon meeting drew two dozen people to the Clinton Community Center, and would have drawn more if it had been held in the evening, party regular Joe Cox said.
Brett Murphy is a retired paramedic with a law school background whose family had been living in Tucson, but earlier this year, moved back to Clinton, where they had lived for 10 years. His goal: to get Democrats to start looking to the future.
His key message: “Focus on Freedom.”
“This election may be the most important one that people will ever vote in,” he said.
Many of those at last Friday’s meeting were first-timers at a political party meeting. Also present were Gary Grigsby from Warrensburg, an officer of the Missouri Democratic Party at the Fourth Congressional District level, and Marvin Manring from Stockton Lake, the Democratic candidate for District 127 of the Missouri House of Representatives. Manring stressed the importance of raising the voter turnout.
“You need to educate the electorate and get them to the polls,” Manring said.
Grigsby said he had t-posts and a driver, to help Democratic candidates put up yard signs. Also speaking at the meeting was the Democratic candidate for Missouri’s U.S. Congress District 4, Jeanette Cass. Cass advanced in the Aug. 6 Democratic Party primary and is running in November against incumbent Mark Alford, the only candidate on the Republican Party primary ballot. District 4 covers west central Missouri from the Missouri River almost to Springfield, excluding the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Cass said she was born in Springfield, raised on a dairy farm in Fordland, Mo., and worked for 30 years for the post office. She got interested in politics in 2021, when the Virginia legislature became the 38th and final state legislature needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Passage of the amendment is still in limbo, however, until Congress waives the seven-year limit on getting ¾ approval of the states. The amendment guarantees that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Cass said she is also alarmed by the U.S. Congress sitting on their hands and not passing the Farm Bill, the national budget or immigration reform.
“We can’t fix anything if we don’t fix Congress,” she said.
Grigsby advised Henry County Democrats to get the party’s Central Committee set up first, then rebuild the Henry County Democrats Club, which are two separate entities. The dates mandated to have the county’s Central Committee reorganized are August 20 through August 24, Grigsby said.
At the Aug. 9 meeting was Greg Hard, who was elected treasurer of the Henry County Democratic Party’s Central Committee four years ago, and who has kept the reports to the Missouri Ethics Commission up to date. Kelly Anderson, committee secretary, did not attend the meeting. The local Democrats are planning to hold another re-organizational meeting, but as of August 12, had not set a date for the meeting. They do have a time and a place — 7 p.m. at the Clinton Rotary Club building, 200 W. Franklin.
Those interested in being appointed to the Henry County Democratic Party Central Committee need to bring a photo ID and a voter precinct card. The rules call for a man and woman from each voter precinct to be appointed to the Central Committee, Grigsby said.
After getting Henry County’s Central Committee set up, Democrats need to hit the ground running, Murphy said, forming subcommittees to go door-knocking, organizing a phone bank and scheduling speakers in the short time before the Nov. 5 election.
“We need to get our voice heard,” he said.
Getting party politics back on an even footing is important, speakers said, in order to balance the extreme elements in politics.
The Democratic Party is the world’s oldest active political party. It began in 1828 as a coalition of state organizations that formed to elect Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Considered the ‘People’s President,’ Jackson represented farmers and rural interests in the southern and western parts of the nation.
Joe Cox noted said Missouri used to be a blue state —the only place that was ‘red’ was Green County (Springfield), he said. Henry County used to elect Democratic Party candidates, but in the last few years, candidates changed party affiliation in order to be elected.
Democratic voters are still out there, Cox said, but choose a Republican primary ballot because there is a scarcity of Democratic candidates running. Missouri uses an open primary system, in which voters do not have to declare membership in a political party to vote in that party’s primary.
Brett Murphy said that once the Democratic Central Committee in Henry County is reorganized, his next job is to get the younger generation of voters engaged. Democrats have the opportunity to make history by electing the first woman president, he said.
Grigsby said he is glad to see there is life in the Democratic Party in Henry County. Cynthia McElvoy of Appleton City challenged those present to step up and make a difference in the November election, quoting Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world,” the only thing that ever has.
Manring put it his way:
“I am a proud, unterrified Democrat,” he said, “and I hope you are, too.”
Pizza Hut donated pizzas for the meeting, Murphy said. For more information, go to the Missouri Democrats of Henry County Facebook.
All Democrats in Henry County are encouraged to attend a meeting on Thursday, August 22, 2024, at 7:00 pm at the Rotary Building of Clinton, 200 W Franklin St in Clinton.
There will be two meetings.
The first meeting will be to organize the Central Committee as per Missouri State Statute 115.607.
If you are interested in being a Committee person for your township or Clinton Ward, please email Greg Hard at henrycodemo5@gmail.com.
If you are interested in helping but not being an elected Committee member, later there will be subcommittees organized and looking for help in the near future.
Once this meeting ends the second meeting will start to reorganize the Democrat Club.
We look forward to seeing everyone.
