An Arnold resident wants to be your next U.S. congressman.
Josh Nicoloff, 32, who grew up in Arnold and moved to rural Illinois as a teenager before moving back to Arnold, has announced his candidacy for the 3rd District U.S. House of Representatives seat in the August and November 2022 elections. The seat is now held by Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer of St. Elizabeth, who was elected to a sixth two-year term in November.
Nicoloff, a revenue audit manager for a casino operator, will run as a Democrat.
He said he was motivated to run for the House seat after the 2020 election, in which Luetkemeyer faced token opposition in both the primary and general elections.
“I didn’t necessarily think about getting into politics, but I saw after the 2020 election that a lot of people in Congress have forgotten that they work for the American people,” he said. “We don’t have people up there fighting for what the average working family needs. I’ve always believed that you have to be the change that you want to see, so here I am.”
Nicoloff said he understands that running for a seat in Congress as his first attempt at elected office isn’t the normal way to make a name in politics.
“It absolutely is a different way to go about it,” he said. “But the U.S. House is supposed to be the legislative branch that is best situated to include the average American.
“That’s the way it was designed, and that’s the way it best works.”
While Nicoloff said running as a Democrat may give him an additional hurdle to leap over in some voters’ minds, he said he’s not an idealogue.
“I’m a firm believer that people from any walk of life, if you sit down and have a real conversation with them, you’ll find that you have quite a few things in common with them, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat. And if I’m elected, I don’t intend to represent just the people who voted for me – I want to represent everyone in Congressional 3.”
Nicoloff said he attended Fox Elementary School, but his family moved to Illinois by the time he was in high school and later returned to tend for an ill great-grandmother.
He said he took business and accounting classes at Jefferson College, and worked in Target pharmacies throughout the St. Louis area.
If elected, he said, his priorities would be health care and the environment – concerns he said he plugged into during his teenage years in downstate Illinois.
“I want to work for access to quality and affordable health care for all Americans,” he said. “When I lived in a rural area, it used to have a really good health care system. But over the years, big medical firms have bought things up and now people have to drive 90 minutes or two hours just to see a doctor. That’s not acceptable.”
Environmental issues also affect family farmers, he said.
“I want to make sure the family farmers have every opportunity to not only make ends meet, but to have the ability to take care of their families,” he said.
Nicoloff said announcing early should help him raise the money required for a costly campaign for the U.S. House.
“In my mind, it was never too early to announce,” he said. “If I start getting in front of people and speaking to them, speaking with them, I believe good things will happen. To carry this district, I know I need to take the time to get my message out there and hear what people think is important to them.”
Geographically, he has a lot of ground to cover. District 3 covers northern Jefferson County and extends north and west past the St. Louis area, as far north as Lincoln County and west to take in Cole County, which includes Jefferson City.
“I drove the entire district a week or so ago,” he said. “I got started very early and got back late and night, but I got to speak with a lot of people. It was a good trip.”
The pay for a U.S. representative is $174,000 a year, plus allowances.