Healthcare executive who vouched for Parson’s COVID-19 response in TV ad has GOP ties
For months, Gov. Mike Parson has faced criticism that he isn’t doing enough to stop the spread of COVID-19 through Missouri. Medical groups have urged him without success to issue a statewide mask mandate. A White House report recommends mask use across the state.
Parson, on the ballot in November, has begun to fight back. His first television spot of the campaign features healthcare executive Christy Shawan, who praises the Republican’s response to the crisis.
“He wanted to know what we were hearing, what we were seeing and what we needed. His leadership made a difference for hospitals everywhere,” Shawan says in the 30-second ad.
What most viewers listening to Shawan’s glowing testimonial don’t know about is her close Republican connections, or her work for a company reprimanded by federal authorities for touting unproven COVID-19 treatments.
A vice president at Cape Girardeau-based Saint Francis Healthcare, Shawan is married to Rep. Jeff Shawan, a Poplar Bluff Republican who ran unsuccessfully for state Senate this year. The couple have collectively donated $5,200 to Parson’s campaign.
Shawan was featured in her husband’s campaign materials and in June narrated a commercial that focused on his endorsement by Missouri Right to Life. Earlier this year, Rep. Shawan was one of two co-sponsors on a bill that would have effectively prohibited abortion by legally defining life as beginning at conception.
Shawan’s Facebook page lists her as a regional vice president of Arbonne, an international multi-level marketing company (MLM) that sells skincare and nutrition products. Individuals in such companies make money by selling products and then recruiting new distributors and earning commissions. The Federal Trade Commission says most people involved in MLMs earn little or no money.
The FTC in April warned Arbonne about claims it made surrounding COVID-19 treatment or prevention and suggestions that participants can quickly earn money. Shawan doesn’t appear to have made similar claims on her own social media. A personal website mostly features videos of her providing business advice, under the tag line, “Lessons on Becoming Your Own Hero.”
American Ledger, a website maintained by the liberal and Democratic research group American Bridge, highlighted Shawan’s role with Arbonne in a post last week.
Shawan didn’t respond to a call on Tuesday. Parson campaign manager, Steele Shippy, said Shawan was proud to appear in the ad as a supporter of the governor and called her an accomplished healthcare executive, private citizen and trusted community leader.
“For Nicole Galloway and her liberal allies to attack Christy Shawan is a new low,” Shippy said in a statement. “It’s clear they hold the sexist belief that Christy can only have an opinion defined by who her husband is. Christy has her own identity and her own opinion regardless of who she is married to or where she used to work.”
Galloway’s campaign declined to comment in response.
On Tuesday, Shippy tweeted a graphic labeling Galloway’s father, husband and uncle as lobbyists. An ad from the pro-Parson Uniting Missouri PAC has also tied Galloway to lobbyists. Her father-in-law, Doug Galloway, has lobbied for the telecommunications provider CenturyLink. Her husband, Jon Galloway, has lobbied for Veterans United Home Loans in the past.
Shawan, as vice president at Saint Francis, a health system with operations in five states, oversees health centers, surgery centers and primary care facilities in the Poplar Bluff area.
As she speaks in the ad, there is footage of Parson – always wearing a mask – with Shawan and other medical professionals.
In one shot, Parson is walking down a hospital-like corridor talking to a man wearing a white coat. The man isn’t identified, but the coat is emblazoned with “Physicians Park Primary Care” – a facility in Poplar Bluff overseen by Shawan.
The Parson campaign refused to answer a question about where and when the ad was filmed.
The ad’s positive portrayal of Parson comes as he is under attack from Galloway, his Democratic opponent, over his pandemic response. He also faces continued criticism from medical groups.
“We’re in a pandemic. The problems we face are big. We can’t have a governor who does so little,” Galloways says in an ad released last month.
The Missouri State Medical Association on Sept. 11 reiterated its call from July for a statewide mask mandate. “We asked for a statewide mask requirement on July 9th – 72,328 sick, and 640 dead Missourians ago,” the association said.
According to a White House report dated Sunday, Missouri is in a “red zone” for COVID-19 cases, with the 5th rate of highest cases per capita in the country last week. Recommendations in the report include statewide mask use and dramatically increased testing at universities.
During the campaign, Parson has emphasized his role in securing protective gear and assistance for medical providers early in the pandemic and coordinating the statewide response.
“Governor Parson’s top priority since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has been to lead our state with a balanced approach that protected the health and safety of all Missourians,” Shippy has said.
Matthew Kelly and McClatchy DC’s Michael Wilner contributed reporting
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.