Name: Christian Morgan
Role: Chief of Staff, Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo.
Age: 38
College: University of Kansas
Law School: University of Missouri, Kansas City
Washington Examiner: How did you end up as chief of staff for Ann Wagner?
Morgan: I started in politics in Kansas in 2004 as part of a congressional race. I worked on the 2006 governor’s race against Kathleen Sebelius. I became executive director of the Kansas Republican Party for the 2008 cycle. From there, I joined a consulting firm in Kansas City, Mo., called Axiom Strategies. I was hired to run congressional races for the 2010 and 2012 cycles.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2574118/
In 2012, I met Ann Wagner, who had decided to run for Congress and hired us. I was the principal consultant on that campaign and she and I hit it off. She asked me, right around the time of the primary, if I’d ever considered making a change and leaving campaigns. I had never done constituent services, but I was ready for a change and ready to do some good for people. I wanted to do something for the community. I had no idea whether or not I would like the coming together of politics and policy.
I am a lawyer by education, but I don’t practice. Coming from the world of politics is a great advantage for this job. I can see things the way people outside of Washington, D.C., do. I haven’t been on the Hill for 10 years working my way up from legislative assistant to chief of staff. The streets of Missouri are more familiar to me than the hallways of the Cannon or Longworth buildings.
I’ve loved this job. It’s great to be able to communicate with constituents from the 2nd District who reach out with ideas, problems, issues, the whole gamut. It’s fulfilling and fun to work alongside them. It’s also rewarding personally because you get to see politics, policy and constituent services pay off for other people. You can see that, although congressional approval numbers are way down, members of Congress do some good for their constituents.
Examiner: What work are you proudest of?
Morgan: I take a lot of pride in working for someone like Ann Wagner when she takes on an issue like sex trafficking. It was about 13 years that Congress hadn’t touched this issue. We were sitting in Ann Wagner’s office, talking about issues we could take up, and she talked about how when she was U.S. ambassador in Europe, one of the issues she worked on a lot was sex trafficking.
She had some of our staff look into what we could do on the issue, and we discovered that apart from amending a couple statutes here and there and updating them, no new sex trafficking legislation had been passed in 13 years. She said I think this is something we should do and something we could do. No one from our side had taken it on. She said I think we ought to do this. We put all our power and energy behind it.
There was a huge trafficking bill passed just a few months ago, and Ann’s part of that was called the SAVE Act — the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act. It goes after those who advertise, and it was simple to fix but important. It adds that element to the current statute. Law enforcement needed that tool and now they have it.
If I had to pick one thing, that would be it, but that said, I’m proud of the work we do locally on the same subject. We have new safe homes in the St. Louis area that the congresswoman has visited; she corresponds with survivors. The work that elected officials can do, that members of Congress can do, that can spread into all levels of government and the community is really something to behold. I’ve been able to see those effects first-hand.
Examiner: What do you do with your spare time?
Morgan: I have six kids. That’s what I spend my spare time doing. Today, for instance, we’re celebrating a birthday. Other days it’s soccer, cheerleading, practices, classes. When I take off my Washington, D.C., suit, I turn into Mr. Mom. What we do with our free time is take care of our kids, and it’s wonderful.
