Missouri Nurse Winter 2022/2023

T he Missouri Nurses Association had an exciting election season this year. We ramped up our advocacy work to put more nurses in front of more legislators. We held eight Legislative Picnics all over the state. These events were a massive success and really upped nurses profile with legislators. Our PAC has also been very active this election cycle. The Legislative Candidate Survey was updated to reflect current legislative priorities and to assure it functions as an educational tool for candidates. The Committee was very pleased with the responses, with an overwhelming majority of candidates indicating strong support for our legislative priorities and specifically stating their support of Full Practice Authority for APRNs. Candidates were selected for endorsement based on their voting record (for incumbents) and other interactions with the candidates including their survey responses. We endorsed an unusual number of primary candidates because of the numerous contested races that had implications for some of our legislative champions. MONA’s endorsement is widely sought and many candidates released a statement and posted on their websites/social media almost immediately after they were notified. In the State Senate we made 15 general election endorsements and all 15 of our candidates were successful. We took a particular interest in ensuring Reps. Nick Schroer and Tracy McCreery won their elections to the State Senate. Both will continue their strong support for Missouri nurses. In the House we made 64 general election endorsements and 63 of our candidates won election to the Missouri House. We should note that Rep. Patty Lewis was re-elected in the 25th district so we will continue to have an RN in the Missouri Legislature. That means MONA-PAC had a 98.7% winning percentage in the 2022 general election. That is amazing and it would not have been possible without your generous donations. Members sent money, attended events, made phone calls, reached out to friend and family, posted on social media and more. All of these activities helped MONA PAC support our nursing champion candidates through the election. Regardless of election results, there is always more work to be done. The 2023 legislative session is just a few short weeks away. We are rolling out an aggressive legislative plan for next session. We are partnering with our friends at the Association of Missouri Nurse Practitioners and Missouri Association of Nurse Anesthetists to make sure we have nurses at the Capitol every week during legislative session. We want to make sure that nursing issues remain front and center in the minds of legislators. Keep an eye out for an event calendar for next session. As always, thank you for your membership. If we all work together as one strong voice, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.

Heidi N. Lucas, MPA MONA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

from the STATE DIRECTOR

Winter 2022/2023 :: The Missouri Nurse | 3

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