Candidate for
State Representative; District 59

Jeanette Mott Oxford, a member of the Democratic Party, is State Representative in the 59th House district of Missouri, having been elected in November 2004. In 2008 she served on the following House committees: Special Committee on Family Services, Standing Committee on Ethics, Special Committee on Energy and Environment.

Jeanette and her partner of twenty-four years, Dorothy, have lived in the 59th District since 1991. The 59th District includes City neighborhoods between the Mississippi River and Grand Avenue, with I-44 as a northern marker and extending south of Chippewa.

Jeanette has been an advocate, educator, writer, and organizer on issues of poverty, health, housing, racism, sexual orientation, and campaign finance reform in Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri for more than 20 years. She is remembered by many for her work as executive director of Reform Organization of Welfare (ROWEL) from 1991-2000.

Jeanette is a member of the Epiphany United Church of Christ (UCC) Church Council. She is past chair of the UCC Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns. She co-founded the Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums (CAPFS) in May, 2001, a grassroots group fighting the use of public tax dollars for the construction of a new St. Louis Cardinals baseball park. CAPFS' mailing list grew from five to more than 500 in two years.

Jeanette received a Neibuhr scholarship to attend Eden Theological Seminary in 1986 and graduated in 1989 with a Master of Divinity degree. She graduated with high honors from Southern Illinois University in 1986 with a B. A. in Religious Studies. She was valedictorian of the class of 1972 at Cave-in-Rock (IL) High School.