Military veteran and democrat Chris Reichard is running for the House of Representatives for the Eighth District because he is “tired of waking up angry” and, after spending time advocating for activist movements in St. Louis, has a calling to serve his country again, this time in office.
“Just when I see civil rights and constitutional rights be trampled, and I thought we had a good break after the first Trump administration figured the younger generations would be able to step up and do their thing, and then Trump got elected again,” Reichard said. “And waking up and not knowing if the world was going to be on fire when you wake up the next morning, just brought me back to a point where I feel like I need to serve my country again.”
Reichard said after he graduated high school in 2003, he joined the Army and was stationed in Iraq within six months after basic training.
“I ended up doing three tours during my service, and while I have been disillusioned to some of the reasons why we had been over there, I am still proud of what I've done and the experience that I gained,” Reichard said.
After his time in the military, he lived in Texas for a few years and eventually moved back home to Missouri, where he grew up. Currently, he is a member of IBW Local One as a communications journeyman technician.
Reichard won the Aug 4 primary against fellow Democratic candidate Frank Barnitz by 56.76%, gaining 1,726 votes. He now faces Republican Jason Smith in the General Election on Nov. 3, who also won the primary against Gordon Heslop by 84.76%, getting 11,002 votes, according to livevoterturnout.com.
Smith served as the Eighth District Representative since June 4, 2013. He is the youngest person to head the Ways and Means Committee. In 2024, he defeated the Democratic opponent Randi McCallian with 76.2% of the votes.
Reichard admitted that while he is a little intimidated by Smith’s experience, he is unimpressed by Smith’s accomplishments in Congress and believes his actions have not been what’s best for the eighth district.
“Looking even closer to just the most recent year, he was a co-author of the Big Beautiful Bill. He, as the head of Ways and Means, could have addressed the trade and tariff issues that were an executive order from Trump at any point in time, and then he also put his stamp of approval on DOGE within the Ways and Means Committee,” Reichard said.
“Between those three, running the numbers and the estimates, looking at stats from left media, right media, unbiased media, it cost our district about half a billion dollars in economic growth last year, and you add his support for the current Iran conflict. We're looking at that rising to another billion dollars this year and next year for early estimates.”
Based on conversations Reichard has had across the district, he found that the top issues he would focus on in office are healthcare, affordability, education, accountability and labor issues. He hopes to tackle many of these issues in an omnibus legislation, which is a bill that brings together several diverse topics into one all-or-nothing vote.
“I've been digging through the 15,000 stalled bills in Congress, finding the ones that actually are there that would help the people already and have just gotten buried in the process and would have to get reintroduced during the next session, and going through the information on that, they only have about a two to 5% chance to pass on their own. But if they get put into omnibus bills, that goes up to 30%,” Reichard said. “
“So I'm trying to put together four or five different omnibus packages. I have about 150 bills set aside plus another 20-ish provisions that are in other bills that I'd like to put together, and just a few omnibus legislations to address what everybody wants or needs.”
Reichard said new leadership for the district is necessary for improvement.
“So for the Republicans and Independents that are unsure of what is going on. Look, I am a progressive candidate, but I'm also pragmatic. I know to get to the situations that we got to fix, you actually have to have a plan,” Reichard said. “Dreams are great, but you have to have a plan. And when we're looking at it on the paper, Jason's been in this seat for over a decade, and I've just seen the lives of District Eight getting worse. We rank at the bottom for unemployment, very high in poverty, three points above the rest of the state, three points above the rest of the country.”
The Midterm Election is on November 3, 2026.