LATEST FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

ST. LOUIS — Fred Wellman, candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional District and a four-time Army combat veteran, condemned the Department of Veterans Affairs’ new rule allowing disability ratings to be based on how veterans function while on medication, warning it could reduce compensation for those managing service-connected conditions:

“Veterans should not lose benefits because they follow their doctors’ orders,” said Fred Wellman, candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional District. “This rule risks penalizing responsible treatment and limiting compensation for injuries and illnesses sustained in service. This entire plan is straight out of Project 2025 and designed to cut the earned benefits of those who have served their country and only ask to be taken care of after risking their lives and health for the nation. Missouri veterans deserve transparency and strong advocacy, not silence. Ann Wagner has said nothing while benefits are put at risk and the Trump VA ignores Congress. I will always fight to protect the care and compensation our veterans earned.”

January 22, 2026

St. Louis, Missouri — Fifty-three years after Roe v. Wade, Americans have fewer rights and greater risk as reproductive health care is increasingly shaped by ideology rather than medical judgment.

Since Roe was overturned, abortion bans have delayed emergency care and created legal uncertainty in hospitals, increasing danger for mothers facing pregnancy complications. These outcomes are now being documented in states with the most restrictive laws.

“Our rights to privacy and autonomy over our medical decisions recognized under Roe were ripped away after years of political pressure turned personal healthcare into a culture war,” said Chelsea Rodriguez, campaign spokeswoman for Fred Wellman. “When medical decisions become political footballs, providers can’t do their jobs and patients die. That is the reality Missourians are living with.”

Rodriguez pointed to Rep. Ann Wagner, who has supported federal policies that restrict reproductive health care and allow political interference in medicine.

“This anniversary is about accountability,” Rodriguez said. “The government took our fundamental freedoms, and mothers are paying the price. Ann Wagner needs to bring real solutions to address this urgent issue instead of using Missourians who need care as pawns in a political game.”

January 12, 2026

ST. LOUIS – Last week,  Ann Wagner voted against extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that help working families afford health insurance. As those credits expire and premiums rise, Wagner chose party loyalty over Missourians who are already stretched thin.

While Wagner worked to block the measure, a bipartisan coalition in the House stood up for working families and forced action to keep health care costs from spiraling further. Their effort moved forward despite continued obstruction from Republicans aligned with the Trump Administration.

“Missourians are paying more for health care right now, not in some distant future. Ann Wagner voted to keep costs high and stayed in lockstep with the Trump Administration instead of standing with working families. Voters see the difference, and they will remember it,” Chelsea Rodriguez, spokesperson for the Fred Wellman for Missouri Campaign, said. 

On the anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and following last night’s unauthorized military action in Venezuela, Democratic candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional District Fred Wellman warned that America is now living with the consequences of unchecked executive power and congressional failure.

“January 6 was not an isolated event. It was a warning,” Wellman said. “When Congress abandons its constitutional duty, power concentrates. And eventually, it is used recklessly. What we are seeing in Venezuela is the result.”

Wellman noted the pattern of unilateral actions, including recent strikes in Nigeria, the pardon of a convicted foreign drug trafficker, and now the announced occupation of Venezuela.

“The Founders gave war powers to Congress for a reason,” Wellman said. “Unchecked power is how republics fail and how wars begin without accountability.”

Wellman, a combat veteran of Desert Storm and three tours in Iraq, also criticized Rep. Ann Wagner for failing to assert Congress’s Article I authority.

“Here in Missouri’s Second District, Ann Wagner has chosen silence and party loyalty over her oath,” Wellman said. “That failure is not theoretical. It is now putting American service members in harm’s way. Service to country, duty in public office, and faithful representation are obligations,” Wellman added. “Congress must remember that now, before more families pay the price.”

January 3, 2026

What happened in Venezuela didn’t start last night. It didn’t start with President Trump’s dangerous decision or with one reckless order. It started years ago, and has continued to grow as Congress chooses weakness over responsibility, loyalty to party over responsibility, and silence over leadership. When lawmakers abandon their constitutional duty, power doesn’t disappear. It concentrates. And eventually, it explodes into exactly this kind of chaos.

Last night’s unauthorized strikes, raid, and now promised occupation of Venezuela did not happen in a vacuum. On December 1st, Donald Trump pardoned a former Honduran president convicted of conspiring to traffic cocaine into the United States. On Christmas, U.S. forces carried out military strikes in Nigeria. Now, last night, American service members were sent into Venezuela to seize Nicolás Maduro on similar charges. Today, the president openly hinted that Mexico could be next. Different countries. Different excuses. Same pattern. A president acting without restraint because Congress refuses to draw a line.

That failure belongs to Congress. And here in Missouri’s Second District, it belongs squarely to Ann Wagner. She has sat on the sidelines and abandoned her Constitutional duty outlined in Article I of the Constitution in pursuit of political and personal gain and cowardice in the face of retribution from the leader of her party.

We can agree that Maduro and his regime are evil and deserve justice while demanding answers and proper following of the U.S. Constitution and our laws. We cannot agree that Maduro must see justice then ignore and support the pardoning of Honduran President Hernandez for the exact same crimes without any acknowledgment of this hypocrisy from Congress.

Congress must immediately convene and debate a war powers resolution and assert their Constitutional control of our military actions. That power does not belong to the president alone. The Founders understood that unchecked power is how republics fail and how wars begin without consent or accountability.

America used to win not just through strength, but through righteousness. We fought with legitimacy and restraint because we followed our own laws. When Congress did its job, American power carried honor. When it doesn’t, force replaces leadership and chaos follows.

I am a combat veteran of Desert Storm and three tours in Iraq from 2003-2008. President Trump has now publicly committed this nation to a prolonged occupation of Venezuela and opening of its oil production to U.S. companies. I know how this ends. I know what this means for our sons and daughters. Congress must act immediately.

Silence is a choice. Abdication is a choice. Ann Wagner and this Congress have made theirs. I will make a different one. When I am in Congress, I will demand oversight, force accountability, and make sure no president sends Americans into harm’s way on a whim. Our service members, Missouri families, and this country deserves a Congress that remembers its duty.

December 29, 2025

Last week, the Kansas City Star ran Candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional District Fred Wellman’s Op-Ed on protecting veterans’ healthcare amid attacks from the Trump Administration.

A long-time veterans’ advocate, Wellman has been speaking out against the attacks on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and recently broke the news of 30,000 job cuts issued by VA Secretary Doug Collins. Read the Op-Ed at the KC Star and copied below:

I’m Running to Keep Trump from Gutting Missouri Veterans’ Healthcare

I went to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis on Wreaths Across America Day to visit my parents. Like so many families, I came to remember, to say thank you and to sit quietly with the weight of what service costs.

When I arrived, volunteers were still working their way through the grounds. My parents’ section had not been reached yet, so I stopped a volunteer, took a stack of wreaths and placed them myself. There was no ceremony. Just cold air, steady hands and rows upon rows of headstones that make one thing painfully clear: Freedom is not abstract. It has names. It has dates. It has families left behind.

That should have been the entire day.

But while wreaths were still being laid, news broke that the Trump administration had quietly confirmed the elimination of more than 30,000 positions across the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system. No announcement. No explanation. Just paperwork and the assumption that no one would connect the dots.

If you want to understand how an administration values veterans, ignore the speeches. Watch the staffing charts. Look at who disappears. Or more accurately, who is never replaced.

Earlier this year, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins floated plans to shrink the VA workforce. Veterans organizations, medical professionals and advocates pushed back hard. The public backlash was intense enough that it appeared the plan had been dropped. Washington moved on. The story faded.

What followed instead was something quieter and far more dangerous. A hiring freeze. Pressure on senior staff to retire early. The stripping away of union protections. A workplace that became so demoralizing that seasoned nurses, clinicians and mental health professionals chose to leave rather than endure it.

Jobs stayed empty. Clinics stayed open. Demand did not drop. Fewer workers were expected to carry more weight. Then, after months of rising wait times and burnout, leadership erased those vacant positions and called it efficiency.

Roughly 1 in 10 VA Jobs Disappeared

This past week, I heard directly from the people living with the consequences. Nurses. Therapists. VA employees who chose public service knowing they would never be wealthy doing it. In a single day, multiple people told me they were watching entire teams vanish, including hundreds of mental health roles.

Here in the St. Louis VA system, at least 55 full-time nursing positions have now been permanently eliminated. That is not a budget line. That is fewer appointments. Longer waits. Exhausted staff holding the system together with less and less support. For veterans already living with pain, trauma or depression, it means deciding whether fighting for care is worth the cost.

This is happening even though the VA’s own inspector general warned last year that the St. Louis system was already critically understaffed. Leadership had the data. They understood the risk. They proceeded anyway. Since Collins took over, roughly 1 out of every 10 VA jobs has disappeared. Throughout it all, he has insisted nothing essential is being lost.

Veterans always pay the price for that kind of dishonesty.

There is a reason this pattern is familiar. The endgame is privatization: Starve the system. Let frustration build. Then point to the damage as proof that public care cannot work. Once veterans are pushed into private networks, the money flows freely. Hospital chains bill more. Insurance companies take their cut. Contractors line up. Veterans’ health becomes a revenue stream.

Wall Street sees it clearly. Veterans are reduced to margins.

I spent my career in uniform. I have buried friends. I have stood in cemeteries such as Jefferson Barracks more times than I can count. Veterans are not asking for luxury. They want competent care from people who understand military service, combat injuries and the long aftermath that follows both.

When it is properly staffed and supported, the VA does that better than anyone. That is exactly why it is being hollowed out quietly instead of attacked openly. If this were honest, there would be outrage.

Which brings me to my representative in Congress.

Ann Wagner: Not an advocate for veterans’ care

I am running against Ann Wagner. She often speaks about her son’s military service. She is quick to cloak herself in patriotic language. But when tens of thousands of VA health care jobs were eliminated, including nurses and mental health staff serving veterans in her own district, she said nothing.

No statement. No questions. No pressure.

While Missouri veterans lost access to care, she stayed silent. While nurses were cut, she stayed silent. While families worried about appointments and mental health support, she stayed silent.

I was at Jefferson Barracks that day. She was not.

Missourians have seen this routine before. Grand gestures. Safe rhetoric. Silence when leadership requires confronting power instead of accommodating it.

Veterans do not need another photo opportunity. They need appointments that exist. Nurses who are not stretched past the breaking point. Mental health care when they ask for it, not months later.

Honoring the fallen while cutting care for the living tells you exactly what priorities are driving these decisions.

If anyone asks why I am running for Congress, this is the answer. I am finished watching veterans used as symbols while their care is quietly dismantled. I am done with management speak that hides real harm. I am done with elected officials who know better and say nothing.

We can do better. But only if we stop pretending this is accidental and start naming who is responsible and who is complicit.

The graves at Jefferson Barracks are silent. The truth does not have to be. Veterans advocate and social entrepreneur

Fred Wellman of Wildwood is a candidate to represent Missouri’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

December 9, 2025

ST. LOUIS – Missourians sent a clear message to power-hungry politicians this week. More than 300,000 voters signed on to stop the legislature’s gerrymandered congressional map from taking effect, nearly triple the number required to force a statewide referendum. While everyday families stepped up to defend their voices, Ann Wagner and Republican leadership continued doing everything they could to block the public from having a say.

The massive signature haul suspends the new map and places its future in the hands of Missouri voters next year. It also exposes just how desperate national Republicans have become as they try to redraw districts to protect vulnerable incumbents like Wagner, who has built her career on carrying water for party bosses instead of standing up for the people she represents.

“Missourians know exactly what is going on,” said Democratic candidate Fred Wellman. “It does not matter how many appeals Speaker Johnson or any of Ann Wagner’s supervisors try to throw at this. The signature campaign alone proves that Missourians are not just getting mad, they are getting organized. Whether they want to do this the easy, fair, and legal way or the hard way, nothing is going to stop hard-working Missourians from holding affordability crisis profiteers like Ann Wagner accountable next November.”

Wagner has become one of the longest-serving and wealthiest members of Missouri’s delegation while families in the Second District fight rising costs, shrinking paychecks, and a Republican agenda that guts food aid and destabilizes farm markets. Instead of helping, Wagner has doubled down on the same political games that pushed voters to the petition tables in record numbers.

For months, Wagner and her allies have tried to undermine the referendum by pushing misleading attacks, weaponizing dark-money networks, and backing legal maneuvers to silence voters. Their goal has been simple: lock in a congressional map engineered to guarantee Wagner a safe seat and keep Missouri families from having a fair shot at representation. They know they can't win at the ballot box, so they're determined to win by cheating. Today they lost.

Background

• The Guardian: Organizers submit enough signatures to block gerrymandered Missouri map

• KSDK: Missouri ballot petition dispute heats up: RNC warns of 'tricks' while activists push back

• Missouri Independent: Federal judge rejects Missouri AG’s push to block referendum on gerrymandered map

• KSDK:  Missouri SNAP benefits on hold for November due to government shutdown

• Missouri Independent: Missouri lost 1.6 million pounds of federal food aid to Trump cuts this year

• KY3: Missouri farmers face crisis as China halts soybean purchases

• KMOV: Voters in MO-2 are calling for communication from Congresswoman Ann Wagner

December 9, 2025

ST. LOUIS – Missouri farmers are being pushed to the brink, and Ann Wagner is once again refusing to stand up for them. The Trump administration’s new $12 billion farm aid package is proof of just how much damage their own trade policies caused. Still, even this bailout falls far short of what Missouri producers need to survive. Meanwhile, Wagner has been silent as her party has given far greater support to foreign competitors like Argentina, whose farmers are set to receive $40 billion in US aid and have benefited from access to new markets and export advantages created directly by Republican policies.

“Missouri’s farmers cannot build a future on short-term checks that do nothing to fix the markets this administration wrecked,” said Democratic candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional District, Fred Wellman. “Ann Wagner has watched China walk away from American soybeans, watched family farms sell equipment to make ends meet, and watched costs surge across the board. She has had every opportunity to demand long-term solutions that restore stability for our producers. Instead, she let her party bail out Argentina’s farm economy while Missouri farmers fight to survive.”

The Associated Press reported yesterday that the administration’s new aid package is meant to offset the sharp losses caused by Trump’s trade war and China’s dramatic reduction in U.S. soybean purchases. Despite White House promises of significant Chinese buying commitments, China has purchased only a fraction of what was announced and remains months behind schedule. That instability has forced farmers across the Midwest to take on debt, sell off equipment, or seek second jobs simply to keep their operations afloat.

Missouri farmers are no different. They are dealing with rising input costs, shrinking markets, and years of uncertainty fueled by reckless trade strategies. Younger farmers and those who rent land face the highest risk of losing their livelihoods. Yet Wagner has refused to challenge her party’s disastrous approach or fight for stronger protections, better markets, or fair competition.

“Family farms do not want bailouts. They want stable markets, predictable prices, and an American government that actually has their back,” Wellman said. “Ann Wagner chose silence while Argentina’s farmers gained ground and Missouri’s markets collapsed. That is a failure of leadership.”

Background

• Associated Press: Trump is giving farmers $12B in aid. They’ve been hit hard by his trade war with China

• KY3: Missouri farmers face crisis as China halts soybean purchases

• KMOV: Voters in MO-2 are calling for communication from Congresswoman Ann Wagner

• Associated Press:  US is working on doubling aid to Argentina to $40 billion

November 18, 2025

Wildwood, MO — Today, Democratic candidate for MO-02 and combat veteran Fred Wellman, released the following statement on the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

“Ann Wagner defended Donald Trump as long as she felt safe in a gerrymandered district, but now that she's being threatened by a challenger with deep grassroots support, she's running scared. Ann Wagner has demonstrated by her actions that in her mind, the Epstein scandal is about Donald Trump, and about Ann Wagner — specifically her chances of being reelected in the midterms. She's wrong. This is about the victims. This is about justice. This is about standing up and saying that nothing, absolutely nothing, is worth compromising the well-being of America's children,” said Fred Wellman.

Rep. Wagner refused to co-sponsor the bipartisan H.R. 4405 — Epstein Files Transparency Act. Last week, Wellman released this statement criticizing Wagner, who built her career proclaiming to fight for survivors of human trafficking:

“Ann Wagner has built her career claiming to fight human trafficking. But when it comes time to shine light on one of the darkest child sex trafficking scandals in modern history, she chooses to embrace the alleged perpetrators rather than stand with the survivors. Her silence is not leadership, it’s cowardice,” said Wellman in the statement.

Wagner’s final vote on the bill followed months of pressure from Missouri constituents.

Coverage Highlights: 

• Missouri Independent: Missouri’s Republican members of Congress mostly mum on Epstein discharge petition

• St. Louis Magazine: U.S. Rep. Wagner faces calls to sign on to Epstein files’ release

• St. Louis Post Dispatch: Letter: With Epstein files in the news, Ann Wagner is silent on sex trafficking

• KMOV 4: Voters in MO-2 are calling for communication from Congresswoman Ann Wagner