It was on this date in both 2018, as well as 2019, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled the U.S. House Representative from Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, Ann Wagner, who after a long career that included working on the 1992 Bush campaign and several years during the second Bush administration as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, was first elected to the U.S. House back in 2012, when she ran for the seat being vacated by former Congressman Todd Akin, who decided to not for his House seat and instead make his epically disastrous run for the U.S. Senate.
Thus far in Wagner’s tenure, she has missed over double the amount of votes of the average member of Congress, at 4.7% of the time. Apparently the fact that she so frequently doesn’t bother to even show up to represent the people of Missouri’s 2nd District (the gerrymandered district covers the wealthy portions of St. Louis in its suburbs) isn’t a deal breaker for those voters, who re-elected her in 2016 with 58.5% of the vote.
Back in 2015, Wagner became a hyperbolic opponent of Planned Parenthood, when she went to the floor of the House to call for the organization to be defunded based on the fraudulent “sting” videos provided by the anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress. Rep. Wagner bought the lie hook, line, and sinker, ranting that it showed “barbaric murder” and insisting that Planned Parenthood was “selling body parts of unborn babies”.
That however, as far as extremist lunacy goes, pales in comparison to what might be her lowest moment as a member of Congress in October 2017, when she got on Twitter to try to link Planned Parenthood to, and we’re not kidding… the Church of Satan. Where would she get such an idea? Well, apparently Ann Wagner gets her best information from Breitbart News, who linked two separate stories about the groups individually suing the government over anti-abortion laws as “proof” of their plot. We’ll let Snopes.com cover just how stupid that is, and then have you wonder how much of a moron Ann Wagner would have to be to believe it.
But that isn’t to say Rep. Wagner is ready to attack all who might wrong the public… when it comes to banks and payday loan lenders, she’d like to allow them to victimize the public as much as possible, as evidenced by her efforts in March of 2017 to gut the protections provided by Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform as well as the budget of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Wagner is also a climate change denier, and she may have also eaten her own booger in a live Fox News interview, so there’s that.
Ann Wagner was a bit endangered in 2018, what with her unsteady allegiance to Donald Trump in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape where he boasted of committing sexual assault was released. While at first Rep. Wagner condemned Trump for his remarks, she ended up waffling again and admitting she would vote for Trump anyway prior to the election.
She didn’t get a serious primary challenger, but still, in the general election, Ann Wagner was definitely sweating about whether or not Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District’s +8 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index would be enough to protect her from the Blue Wave, what with Democrats having a +8 advantage in polls with generic Democrats versus generic Republicans. She was nervous enough that she actually tried claiming that a campaign mailer Missouri Democrats sent out that criticized her immigration record was “illegal”, which isn’t only untrue, it’s also a bizarre attempt at stifling the First Amendment rights of her opponents to speak ill of her. Still, even with the fact that she has never hosted a town hall in the six years she had held office… the partisan lean for Missouri’s 2nd ended up being just about enough to allow Wagner to hold on, as she won re-election in November with 51% of the vote.
Thus, she was allowed to return to Washington, DC, and do things like this:
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Wagner voted against HR 648, because she was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Wagner votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Wagner votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress can’t be arsed to vote for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- May 17th, 2019: Wagner votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Wagner can’t be arsed to vote for the Dreamers Act, because she’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Ann Wagner votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- December 18th, 2019: Rep. Wagner ignores her Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
Ann Wagner remains one of the few Republican women left in Washington, and still one of the worst. And that’s why we’re thrilled to report Missouri Democratic State Senator Jill Schupp has rolled up her sleeves, and plans on jettisoning Ann Wagner from office in 2020. After eight years of cowardice from Wagner, we’re looking forward to seeing her booted from the capitol in November.
One Year Ago, February 27th, 2019: Ann Wagner (MO)… 2019 Update
Two Years Ago, February 27th, 2018: Ann Wagner (MO)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago, February 27th, 2017: Peter Kinder (MO)… 2017 Update
Four Years Ago. February 27th, 2016: Peter Kinder (MO)… 2016 Update
Five Years Ago, February 27th, 2015: Peter Kinder (MO)… Original Profile