Missouri

Two years ago, the IBEW in Missouri endorsed Jean Carnahan’s husband, Mel, for the seat then held by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Voters elected Carnahan posthumously with the understanding his wife would be appointed by the governor. November will be the first time Jean Carnahan will be tested by voters for the right to fulfill the remaining four years of the term. She has spent two years in the Senate accumulating a record based on safeguarding Social Security and Medicare and improving education. She is a grandmother with deep roots in Missouri and supporters credit her work on the TWA/American Airlines merger, which protected 12,000 jobs in the state.

Former Representative Jim Talent, a Republican, is challenging her for the seat. Talent, a lawyer and career politician with a conservative political agenda, spent eight years in Congress before an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2000. On issues of importance to working families, Talent has a lifetime labor voting record of 3 percent. He consistently voted against workers on trade, minimum wage and prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients.

The IBEW has 20,136 members in Missouri.