Alyse Pfeil
Mar 19, 2024
“We have a community that needs direct investment. We have a community that needs more affordable housing,” she said. “So I not only have a passion for these areas, but I have the skills.”
JEFFERSON CITY — Candidates competing in Missouri’s Aug. 6 primary have just one week left to file the formal paperwork that allows them to appear on the ballot and vie for their party’s nomination.
In Missouri’s 163-member House of Representatives, just one seat is currently vacant. So far, two Democrats have filed to fill the spot: Jacqueline “Jami” Cox Antwi and Marty Joe Murray Jr.
It’s in House District 78 in the city of St. Louis, a narrowly drawn area stretching from Fox Park and Lafayette Square in the south to St. Louis Place in the north. It covers major tourist draws like Busch Stadium, Enterprise Center and America’s Center convention facility.
The seat opened up after former state representative and current 14th Ward Alderman Rasheen Aldridge was elected to the St. Louis Board of Alderman last April. Cox Antwi, 28, is a St. Louis native who works in community development finance for U.S. Bancorp. She told the Post-Dispatch that a finance background is important for someone representing a downtown community.
“We have a community that needs direct investment. We have a community that needs more affordable housing,” she said. “So I not only have a passion for these areas, but I have the skills.”
Cox Antwi has a bachelor of arts in public policy studies from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in global affairs from Tsinghua University in China through the Schwarzman Scholars program.
She was part of Reform St. Louis, a group that led a 2022 effort to pass Proposition R, which placed the responsibility of drawing city ward maps with an independent commission rather than city aldermen and created conflict-of-interest rules for aldermen.
Murray, 34, is a senior project manager for BJC HealthCare and an adjunct professor at Harris-Stowe State University.
Murray has a bachelor of science in business management from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and an MBA from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He grew up in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.
Since 2016, he’s held positions within the Missouri Democratic Party. Murray said he’s spent that time establishing relationships at the local, state and national levels of the party that will help him represent St. Louis at the state Capitol.
“The moment we live in now” is prompting his run for office, Murray told the Post-Dispatch.
“When I look at everything that is going on in St. Louis and the Missouri Legislature, I feel like our city is being targeted,” he said. “So I felt like I wanted to do my part to stand up for St. Louis.”