Fred Wellman’s victory in Missouri’s second congressional district on Tuesday was such a surprise that NBC News’s star data analyst Steve Kornacki didn’t even have a graphic prepared, he told supporters on election night.
asserted
he → prepare → night
Longtime Republican incumbent Ann Wagner, who had been widely expected to hold her seat, was swept aside as part of a broader wave of Democratic victories across the country.
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who → expect → country
Wellman, 61, had a lengthy career as an officer in the US army and later as a veterans advocate, but he is better known as an anti-Donald Trump, pro-democracy online media personality with more than 358,000 followers on X.
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he → have → X.
He met his fiancee on the social media platform, he said.)
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he → meet → platform
He hosts a podcast called On Democracy for the progressive, anti-Trump MeidasTouch network, making him a non-traditional choice in a predominantly conservative state like Missouri.
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him → host → Missouri
“Fred has always been a fighter and a powerful voice for the people when it matters most,” said MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas.
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Meiselas → matter → people
“We’re incredibly proud of his success and thrilled to see him win.”
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him → ’re → success
Wagner attempted to use Wellman’s media career against him, playing up his self-description as a “flaming liberal” several years ago on a podcast in a campaign advertisement.
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Wagner → attempt → advertisement
While Wellman’s podcast, which he began four years ago, certainly raised his national media profile, he said he intentionally emphasized his local roots growing up in Kirkwood, Missouri.
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he → begin → Kirkwood
“I didn’t want to be a national figure or national anti-Trump guy,” he said.
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he → want → ?
“I wanted to be Fred from Kirkwood.
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I → want → Kirkwood
And I think one of the reasons we won this race is because instead of trying to be this ‘famous person’ who’s running for his local office, I always said my job is to represent the people of Missouri.
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job → think → Missouri
And I think that was a key strategy decision that I think paid off for us.”
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I → think → us
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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interview → condense → clarity
Were you surprised to win?
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you → win → ?
No, I thought we would win.
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we → think → ?
I thought it was 50/50.
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it → think → ?
I believe a lot of folks were saying it was a toss-up.
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it → believe → folks
I was always worried about the amount of ads [Wagner] was able to run …
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Wagner → run → [
But I knew from being present in the district and talking to people that we could do it, that we’ve created a bipartisan, a nonpartisan movement, that I had captured the coalition I needed to capture, which was all of labor came in with us, short of police and fire.
uncertain
all → know → police
And even the rank-and-file of the police and fire were backing me.
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rank → back → me
Why did you try to de-emphasize your national media and social media career when running for office?
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you → try → office
I think it’s off-putting to people who are local.
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who → think → people
I think a lot of times it feels like they’re being used for your national ambitions, or that you want to be famous.
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you → think → ambitions
I think especially for me, as being a social media person that was well known – somewhat, if you will – online, that people dismissed me as just looking for more clout.
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people → think → clout
And I wanted to make it very clear: no, I was running to be a congressman representing 759,000 people of eastern Missouri.
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I → want → Missouri
And then we showed it personally by being everywhere in the district and meeting people where they are, not relying solely on being internet famous.
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we → show → people
And I think that’s one of the reasons we did so well.
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we → think → reasons
What did your family originally think of your decision to get into podcasting?
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family → think → podcasting
It’s a running joke that when I told my fiancee I wanted to start a podcast, she thought that was a terrible idea because it’s a little cliche being a middle-aged white guy with a podcast.
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it → ’ → podcast
But it was a great platform for me to tell my story – not my story, that’s the wrong way to put it – but to talk about democracy, talk about the threats to democracy, highlight some of the incredible voices: journalists, authors, politicians, thinkers.
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that → tell → voices
I’ve really enjoyed doing it.
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I → enjoy → it
I’ve learned a lot.
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I → learn → lot
And the nice thing about doing it for so long – four years of doing a podcast – there are very few issues I hadn’t seen.
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I → do → podcast
So when it came time to be a congressman or a candidate, there’s very few things that hadn’t come across my radar at some point.
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that → come → point
Did you think your candidacy caught Wagner off-guard?
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candidacy → think → guard
Well, we were considered safe even within the national movement.
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we → consider → movement
The Cook Political Report never moved us off as “safe Republican”.
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Report → move → Republican
I think the prognosticators felt that as a 34-year Republican seat, a 14-year incumbent who started out with $4.5m to my zero, and me not having that kind of wherewithal, they took the fact that the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] and the other big national groups never came in, as a sign of weakness within my campaign …
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Committee → think → campaign
As we looked at the numbers and we looked at what was possible, I saw a real opportunity.
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I → look → opportunity
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
