Why a lifelong Missouri Republican protested the GOP for the first time | Opinion

I want to share a story from Jefferson City this week.

More than 3,500 Missourians came to the state capitol to protest the extraordinary session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe, an effort to force through two dangerous pieces of legislation that strip power from everyday people.

Among the crowd, I noticed a woman outside who looked disoriented, searching for directions. The heat was brutal. Suddenly, she began to stumble, and I rushed to catch her before she fell. With the help of Capitol Police, we got her water, shade and time to recover. After she regained her strength, I walked with her inside.

That’s when our conversation began.

She told me this was the first time she had ever set foot in the Missouri State Capitol, the first time she had ever joined a protest. She shared that she has voted Republican her entire life. She is from the Lake of the Ozarks. She spent her career as an emergency room nurse, with decades of long nights, saving lives and carrying the weight of other people’s worst days. Recently, as she nears retirement, she began working in hospice care, where she now guides patients and families through their final chapters with dignity and compassion.

When I asked her what brought her to Jefferson City, her eyes welled with tears. She said, “I’m worried about my country.”

She spoke about her fear of watching our government institutions erode before her eyes. About rules being rewritten, voices being silenced and liberties she always believed were guaranteed now feeling fragile.

I’ll never forget the look in her eyes as she said those words. This was not a partisan activist. This was not someone who had spent years organizing rallies or knocking doors. This was a nurse from middle Missouri, a lifelong Republican, who felt so alarmed by the direction of our state and our country that she decided she could not stay silent. She stood shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other Missourians demanding that their voices be heard.

Her story is not unique. It is the story of many across our state who are realizing that something is deeply wrong.

In Missouri, GOP lawmakers are unconstitutionally gerrymandering our state, deliberately drawing maps to drown out the will of voters. They are trying to strip away the citizen-led initiative petition, one of the last tools we have to make our voices heard when politicians refuse to listen. They are changing the rules to make sure power stays in the hands of a few instead of the many.

And it is not just here. Across the country, we see efforts to undermine rights we once thought were untouchable: our right to vote, our right to organize, our right to have a say in the future of our communities.

The woman I met reminded me of something powerful: These issues are bigger than party labels. They cut across geography, across class, across ideology. When institutions crumble, when rules are rewritten for the benefit of the powerful, all of us lose.

What struck me most was her courage. At a time when many feel helpless, she showed up. She risked her own comfort and health to stand on the steps of the capitol because she knew silence was not an option.

That is what gives me hope.

The thousands who filled Jefferson City this week were not just Democrats or Republicans. They were Missourians — nurses, teachers, construction workers, small business owners, parents and grandparents. They came because they understand that democracy is not a spectator sport. It is something we must actively defend, together.

The question now is whether we will follow her example. Whether we will summon the courage to speak out when our rights are under attack. Whether we will refuse to accept a future where a handful of politicians decide the rules for everyone else.

Missouri belongs to all of us. And if a nurse from the Lake of the Ozarks can show up for the first time in her life to say enough is enough, then so can we.

Because in the end, the only thing more powerful than the fear of losing our democracy is the determination of ordinary people to protect it.

Zack Dunn is director of government affairs for the 501(c)(5) nonprofit Missouri and Kansas Laborers District Council. He lives in Gladstone.