Whitney Wisker-Brooks
Whitney Wisker-Brooks, 38, an out progressive lesbian, is running for the House District 116 (HD 116) seat in the Missouri General Assembly. She is a Democrat.
There are 163 seats in the Missouri House of Representatives. Whitney Wisker-Brooks is running in House District 116.
District 116 covers approximately the southern half of St. Francois County and the northern half of Madison County. (The St. Francois County Courthouse in Farmington, where 400 gathered at the No Kings Rally in March, is about 70 miles south of the St. Louis Gateway Arch.)
The 2024 Election
In the 2024 election, St. Francois County residents cast 28,615 votes for president – 75.2% for Trump and 23.8% for Harris. Madison County’s 5,753 votes went 82.1% for Trump and 17.1% for Harris. (Missouri overall voted 58.5% for Trump and 40.1% for Harris.) In that same election, HD 116 went 83.4% for the GOP candidate, while the Libertarians scooped up 16.6% of the vote. There was no Democrat on the ballot, as is often the case in rural America.
Missouri Democrats
Every race is tough for Democrats outside of urban areas and, frankly, wins in rural Missouri sometimes seem unimaginable. But Democrats don’t get votes and Democrats don’t win if Democrats are not on the ballot. Missouri Democrats, therefore, the last couple of years have worked hard to find and support rural Democratic candidates for every race on the ballot, with well-known political commentator Jess Piper, executive director of Blue Missouri, among those leading the charge.
Whitney Wisker-Brooks, in March, filing for office in Jefferson City.
And this year, Show-Me-State Democrats have done an extraordinary job recruiting office seekers for the November election. (Even I was asked about running.) The Democratic Party has three candidates (Frank Barnitz, Clayton Harbison, and Chris Reichard) vying for the nomination to challenge trumpist Jason Smith for the Eighth Congressional District federal seat, which covers all of southeast Missouri. They’ve also recruited a Democratic candidate to run in almost every state House and Senate race — among them two novice politicians, Eli Flowers in the 117th, which covers northern St. Francois County (in 2024, Democrat Casey Cassidy earned 24% of the HD 117 vote); and Whitney Wisker-Brooks.
Whitney Wisker-Brooks
Whitney Wisker-Brooks’ family has deep roots in Missouri, with at least one genealogical line going back nearly to the admittance of the state to the Union in 1821. Wisker-Brooks was raised in Farmington. She attended St. Joseph Catholic School during K-8 and Farmington (public) High School, from which she graduated in 2006. After completing secondary education, she attended the local community college, Mineral Area College, for one year before transferring to the state flagship institution, the University of Missouri in Columbia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in social work. She’s worked in rural healthcare settings, including behavioral health services to active duty military, veterans, and their families at Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Missouri. She now lives back in her Farmington hometown with her wife Allie, 40, their dog Hattie, and their cats, Samson and Sullivan.
Whitney Wisker-Brooks (right) with her wife, Allie Wisker-Brooks (left).
Her wife, Allie Wisker-Brooks, whom she met online (as nearly everyone does these days), grew up in Mahopac, New York, and attended the State University of New York at Albany, earning a bachelor’s degree in history along with master’s degrees in history and library science. Allie has built a career working in higher education, serving this past year as the coordinator of concurrent enrollment at Mineral Area College, where she was selected by her colleagues as New Cardinal (i.e., employee) of the Year. This month, she completes her MBA, promising never to be “a finance bro.”
Whitney and Allie are a pillar-of-the-community couple — young, strong, and smart — and they’ve chosen professional fields that improve the lives of lower-income, rural, and marginalized neighbors.
Running for Everyone
Candidate Wisker-Brooks is not, in her words, “running to be a politician.” She is running “to be a representative, someone who listens, advocates, and works tirelessly to ensure that the voices of this community are heard and respected.” Within government systems that are “fair, responsive, and effective,” she seeks to serve the people of her district with “integrity, transparency, and purpose,” naming three primary objectives to work on in Jefferson City: good, safe schools that are fully funded; affordable housing and utilities; and healthcare access for all.
While Wisker-Brooks is running unopposed in the Democratic primary on August 4, three Republican candidates are seeking to be on the ballot to replace the term-limited current occupant, conservative Republican Dale Wright, who won 83% of the vote in 2024. Until the Republican Party chooses its candidate, Whitney Wisker-Brooks is not running against anyone — she’s running for everyone.
Winning this deep-red rural seat is a steep climb that sometimes feels Sisyphean. If anyone can reach the summit, however, it’s Whitney Wisker-Brooks and the people cheering her on, myself included.
Rodney Wilson, a resident of Missouri’s District 116, has been a teacher for over thirty years, currently teaching history and world religions at Mineral Area College, where this year he was named Faculty Member of the Year.
TO FOLLOW THE WISKER-BROOKS CAMPAIGN OR TO DONATE
Campaign website is here.
Campaign Facebook page is here.
Donations are accepted here.
