Campaign Announcement Speech—Washington D.C., January 8, 2024

My name is Sarah Unsicker. I stand here today on the steps of the United States Capitol to announce that I am running for Governor of Missouri.

I came to Washington D.C. because this election is not just about Missourians like me. Right now, Missouri is the battlefield for the soul of America. I am here to ask for all of America to help me put the Heart back in the Heartland.

My kids make the sixth generation of our family to settle in Missouri. Our ancestors came to Missouri, like so many have, to seek a brighter future. And so my family has built our life there. I studied the law in St. Louis, used my education to heal families in our court system, and then went to work writing laws in our state capitol. 

But what is happening in Missouri is a global emergency. There is no justice in our courts. Our politicians do not govern. Families are being torn apart. People are still forced into slave labor. Our elections are under attack from enemies foreign and domestic. And the same spirit that would have ripped this country asunder in 1861 still threatens us today.

Missouri is where America will decide, this year, whether any nation conceived in liberty, dedicated to the notion that all people are created equal, can long endure.

We must endure. We must keep this Republic. And so we need the eyes of the world—and we need all of America’s help.

President Joe Biden gave a speech last Friday in which he, echoing our founding fathers, asked whether Democracy remains America’s Sacred Cause.

I agree with President Biden. It is our sacred cause. The government that George Washington and his compatriots debated, deliberated, and fought for is one that deserves our full support and our confidence. The Constitution, George Washington said, is a sacred obligation.

Yet in Missouri, our politicians have declared a civil war against Federal law. It could not stand in 1861, and it cannot stand today.

Government forms the foundation upon which the structure of society is built. In Missouri, the cracks in that foundation have gotten so bad that the society built on top is no longer stable. Keeping our house in order by protecting our democracy is a sacred obligation. And I have been punished by my own party for pointing out the cracks in that foundation.

Government cannot endure without standing for all people. Christ commanded us to stand up for the least among us, and that is a sacred duty that comes before party loyalty. It is the reason we need the structure of government. But in Missouri, we have a government that punishes those who protect the vulnerable. That is an international emergency.

I am running for Governor of Missouri because we must have justice. We must have security in our elections. We must have children who can grow up safe, healthy, and happy.

Missouri is a beautiful state that truly is the beating heart of America. Countless Americans have settled in Missouri to seek their fortune, or to venture onward to the great states of the West. Her rich farmland is the most productive on Earth. Her gentle rivers connect our prosperity to the rest of the world. Her artists elevate our culture. And the genius of her scientists illuminates our future.

But at this moment, Missouri’s democracy has lost its way. That is why I am here today, announcing my campaign for Governor. Because America has to put the Heart back in the Heartland and take the Misery out of Missouri. 

American democracy must not perish from the earth. We have a sacred duty to win on this battlefield. And we shall prevail.