The 2022 midterms are fast approaching and a new group of Oak Park seniors is eligible to vote for the first time in a year where every single vote could have a significant impact on a national scale. Here’s what the seniors need to know about the candidates and issues for this year’s election. 

For the senate race, the two major candidates are Eric Schmitt for the Republican party and Trudy Busch Valentine for the Democratic party.

Valentine has campaigned on abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and more accessible treatment for those struggling with opioid addiction. She is the heiress of the Anheuser-Busch beer company, and has a background in healthcare, graduating from the University of Saint Louis with a degree in nursing in 1980.

Eric Schmitt is the current Missouri attorney general and has worked in the Missouri government since he was elected as a Missouri state senator in 2008. Schmitt has based his campaign on providing secure jobs, election security, and being “tough on crime”. Eric Schmitt has been a vocal critic of President Joe Biden, criticizing many of his economic and foreign policies. Schmitt has also echoed many of former President Trump’s claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Among five amendments to the state constitution proposed on this year’s ballot the most impactful is amendment three, an amendment to legalize the purchase, use, sale, production, and shipping of marijuana. This amendment also would allow people with previous non-violent cannabis offenses to petition for release from incarceration. In 2021, more than 9,000 Missourians were criminally charged solely with possession of cannabis, which can run a sentence of up to seven years in prison.