For the last few years, I’ve practiced asking my friends and family if they were planning to vote and what that plan was. I was used to asking how they planned to vote on issues, though rarely about candidates. Before that I’d never really asked, “What time do you think you’ll head to the polls?”...Read More

Today the Missouri House of Representatives gave final passage to five of six bills heard by House committees on August 17. The bills were crafted as a response to Gov. Mike Parson’s call to a Special Session on Violent Crime, but none address the root causes of violence. We believe that the witness of the past...Read More

Since Empower Missouri’s focus is on securing basic human needs and equal justice for every person in our state, we receive quite a few calls from people whose food and housing security are in danger. This week I had a call from a tenant with low-income who is aware that the federal eviction moratorium has...Read More

In the spring of 2020, we saw the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, a pandemic unlike anything since 1918. The pandemic forced the closure of cities, packed emergency rooms, and claimed the lives of thousands. Spring also served as the backdrop for the civil rights movement’s resurgence after the tragic death of George Floyd, and,...Read More

Missouri’s General Assembly and executive branch have moved into political chaos, following a pair of racially insensitive proclamations to Special Session by Governor Mike Parson. These came on the heels of signing Senate Bill 600, a “get tough on crime” package of measures that repeat mass incarceration failures of the past that had racially disparate...Read More

In 2012, Empower Missouri became part of the Missouri Medicaid Coalition. Year after year, our coalition would ask the Missouri General Assembly to close the Medicaid coverage gap so that workers with low wages could get into Medicaid if they did not meet the income guidelines for the Marketplace plans in the Affordable Care Act....Read More