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Dan Schaefer
Dan Schaefer (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Missouri House of Representatives to represent District 97. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Biography
Dan Schaefer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Schaefer's career experience includes working as an engineer, marketing operations manager, field sales engineer, trainer, entrepreneur, and writer. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1982. Schaefer has been affiliated with the ACLU and Democratic Party.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Missouri House of Representatives elections, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for Missouri House of Representatives District 97
Dan Schaefer and David Robertson are running in the general election for Missouri House of Representatives District 97 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Dan Schaefer (D) | |
| David Robertson (R) | ||
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Missouri House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Missouri House of Representatives District 97
Incumbent David Casteel defeated Dan Schaefer in the general election for Missouri House of Representatives District 97 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | David Casteel (R) | 64.5 | 11,459 |
| Dan Schaefer (D) | 35.5 | 6,309 | |
| Total votes: 17,768 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 97
Dan Schaefer advanced from the Democratic primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 97 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dan Schaefer | 100.0 | 1,576 |
| Total votes: 1,576 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Denise Billo (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 97
Incumbent David Casteel advanced from the Republican primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 97 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | David Casteel | 100.0 | 3,248 |
| Total votes: 3,248 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Schaefer in this election.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dan Schaefer has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Dan Schaefer asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Dan Schaefer, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?
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You can ask Dan Schaefer to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing dan@dan4mo.com.
2024
Dan Schaefer completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Schaefer's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I returned to Missouri with a global perspective and deep local roots. As an HOA board member, I saved our community millions on our local infrastructure. My over 200 podcast episodes with politicians, activists, authors and thinkers have deepened my understanding of the issues we face and reinforced my commitment to advocacy and dialog.
Missouri is at a crossroads, facing challenges to women's rights, democracy, and our social fabric. The current political climate, driven by policies that undermine our freedoms and economic strength, requires bold action and leadership that listens first and then acts with conviction.
My campaign is more than a political pursuit; it's a movement towards a fairer, more equitable Missouri. I am ready to listen, represent, and advocate for our rights, health, prosperity, and future in the state house.- Women's rights are under attack, not only in Missouri but across the entire nation. Certain factions within the Missouri Legislature, who justify their actions with the "Sanctity of Life," are in fact pushing a broader agenda to consolidate patriarchal control. This strategy is not limited to suppressing women's autonomy but is part of a wider attempt to marginalize the LGBTQ community, racial minorities, and followers of non-Christian faiths. We've seen how recent legislation targeting abortion rights is paralleled by bills that undermine protections for several groups, indicating a unified and dangerous strategy to sabotage all our civil liberties. The attack on women's rights is an attack on all our rights.
- I believe in government by consent. We live in a country where the government is supposed to work for "We the people." The idea that the government needs our approval to make decisions has been around for nearly a thousand years and is a key part of what the Declaration of Independence is all about. Lately, however, many of our elected officials have become more interested in gaining power for themselves than in serving us. They act as if they're entitled to their positions and ignore what we, the people, want, especially when we disagree with them. This is not how it’s supposed to work. They should be protecting our rights, not taking them away. Our government works for us, not the other way around.
- Education is the key to our nation's greatness. For nearly 200 years, public education was vital to turning our children into disciplined and sensible adults. Public education evolved over the years, teaching the value of critical thinking and, as a result, yielding a nation that became the most innovative and creative in the world. However, a movement is gaining momentum, advocating for the privatization of education and the suppression of critical thinking. Some folks seek to redirect public funds to private schools, prioritizing political and religious indoctrination over developing critical thinking skills. This is unacceptable. I support public education to ensure we remain one of the most innovative and prosperous nations on earth.
Our government must get back to serving the people, not the politicians. Through Gerrymandering and voter suppression, we're entering a dangerous area where the demise of democracy is within sight. We must do more to serve the principles of democracy, including open primaries and Ranked Choice Voting.
Healthcare belongs to everyone, and it is within our grasp to make it universal.
- "The Politics Industry," by Gehl and Porter
- "Grand Illusion," by Theresa Amato
- "How Fascism Works," by Jason Stanley
- "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," by John Perkins
- "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop," by Lee Drutman
- "Woke Racism," by John McWhorter
- "Laboratories of Autocracy," by David Pepper
- "Shadow Network," by Anne Nelson
- "Fighting Bob La Follette - The Righteous Reformer," by Nancy Unger (I'm currently still reading this biography)
This is my country too! I love the United States. If I didn't care about our nation, I wouldn't feel the need to fight for it.
Currently, these freedoms are under threat due to a worrying trend in the Missouri Legislature towards centralizing power at the state level, which often disregards the will of local communities. An example of this is the 2019 legislation (SB-391) concerning Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). This law stripped counties of the power to regulate CAFOs, despite their significant impact on local ecosystems and people's quality of life, including pollution of streams and groundwater, not to mention the foul stench it puts into the air. It's not only a health hazard, but it severely degrades property values.
Furthermore, this overreach can be seen in issues beyond environmental regulation. The ongoing violations of women's reproductive rights and attempts to usurp local control over police forces are indicative of a broader pattern of state-level power consolidation that threatens our autonomy.
The relationship should be respectful but not necessarily personal.
I believe much of this frustration comes from a growing wealth inequality in our state as well as our entire nation. Through the use of lobbyists, rich people and corporations enjoy undue influence over our government as well as our media. As people slide downward on the economic scale, they look for "others" to blame. The media obliges this search by providing a stream of bogymen in the form of illegal immigrants, LGBTQ, women, minorities, etc.
Among my most memorable is the story of Bobby Bostic. Mr. Bostic was convicted of a felony in which a gun was involved. He was 17 at the time, and he was sentenced to over 240 years in prison, where he wasn't eligible for parole until he would be well over 100 years old. Through the tireless work of advocates, he finally got an early parole while still in his 40s. While in prison in Jefferson City, he studied and got his GED diploma, and then went on to get a college degree. When he finally gained his freedom, he committed his life to breaking the "school-to-prison pipeline" by helping folks like himself who grew up without any hope. Mr. Bostic is a living example of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature."
Laws are written to guide our actions when times are difficult, not when things are easy.
- Administrative Oversight
- Conservation and Natural Resources
- Corrections and Public Institutions
- Crime Prevention
- Elementary and Secondary Education
- Emerging Issues
- Ethics
- Health and Mental Health Policy
- Healthcare Reform
- Higher Education
- House Economic Development
- Legislative Oversight
- Local Government
- Public Safety
- Utilities
The principle of transparency can help uncover nefarious government activities. The Iran-Contra fiasco in the 1980s is a classic example, where a rogue group of Pentagon officials attempted to circumvent congressional oversight by illegally selling arms to Iran to fund Contra activity in Nicaragua. Not until 1993 did the full extent of the fiasco become known, after Public Citizen successfully sued under the Freedom of Information Act. In this case, transparency exposed the corruption, but unfortunately, it was about a decade too late.
If you read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins, you'll see how the lack of financial transparency has led to massive destabilization activities around the globe. These destabilization activities, when taken to the extreme, often ensnare our nation into wars.
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Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate Missouri House of Representatives District 97 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 18, 2024
