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Jefferson County Labor Club Meet & Greet Brings Workers and Legislators Face to Face

Casual Tanglefoot event gives rank-and-file labor members direct access to Missouri lawmakers and candidates

By The Jefferson Review

A casual meet and greet at Tanglefoot Dance Hall on Festus Main Street brought together members of the Jefferson County Labor Club, Missouri legislators, candidates, and local residents for an evening focused on conversation, access, and relationship building.

The event, held Wednesday, June 24, was designed to be simple: food, drinks, handshakes, and direct conversations between working families and the people seeking to represent them.

Steve Earp, who helped organize the event and is running for Jefferson County Clerk in the Republican primary, said the idea had been discussed for nearly a year as a way to create more informal opportunities for rank-and-file labor members to speak directly with elected officials.

“This is representative government at its best, if we can pull this off,” Earp said.

According to Earp, the goal was not to create a campaign rally or formal political forum, but to give local workers and legislators a chance to speak with one another in a more natural setting. He said the first event was something he helped personally fund, with Tommy Vogel donating the venue and working with organizers on an open bar and appetizers.

The result, Earp said, exceeded expectations.

“I was surprised by how successful it was,” Earp said, describing the room as full throughout the evening as people came and went. “Good start. Great start, in fact.”

Earp said he hopes the gathering can become a monthly event, giving workers, candidates, and officeholders more chances to build relationships before major decisions are made in Jefferson City.

Ted Ramsdell, president of the Jefferson County Labor Club, said the organization’s mission has always been to educate and engage its members on the elected officials who represent them, especially on issues that affect wages, benefits, job security, and working conditions.

Ramsdell said the Labor Club is willing to have conversations with candidates from any party.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever,” Ramsdell said. “We always engage.”

For Ramsdell, the strength of the event was its simplicity. Instead of speeches from a stage or a formal question-and-answer panel, workers and elected officials were able to meet one another face to face.

“When our rank-and-file membership comes to meet these officials, they get to hear their concerns and what their hot topics are right out of the gate, from their mouth,” Ramsdell said.

He said that kind of direct contact matters because elected officials sometimes may not fully understand what labor members do, what they care about, or how policy decisions affect their families.

The conversations at the event touched on several issues important to working families, including inflation, major local projects, initiative petition reform, the state income tax debate, prevailing wage, and right-to-work concerns. Ramsdell said many labor members are especially focused on policies that affect job opportunities, overtime, benefits, and long-term security for working families.

But the larger message of the night was about access.

Earp said events like this can help remove the perception that lawmakers are only listening to lobbyists or political insiders.

“If we can do that, they hear it directly from the voters in their district,” Earp said. “That’s what we need more of.”

Ramsdell said the laid-back environment helped build trust. Legislators and candidates were able to walk around, introduce themselves, shake hands, and hear directly from the people they represent.

“It was about as ground floor grassroots as you could really put it,” Ramsdell said.

Both Earp and Ramsdell said they heard strong feedback from attendees who wanted to see more events like it.

For Jefferson County, the evening served as a reminder that politics can still happen face to face, over appetizers, drinks, and real conversations between neighbors.

And if organizers have their way, this will not be the last time local workers and lawmakers gather in the same room to talk about the future of working families in Jefferson County.

The Jefferson County Labor Club meets on the second Monday of the month at the Crystal City Eagles Lodge on Mississippi Avenue.