Nick sat down with Fred Wellman — retired Army lieutenant colonel, former Lincoln Project executive director, and the newly minted Democratic nominee in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District — two weeks after Wellman won his primary. Wellman traces his run to what he calls his “split screen moment” last June: Congress arguing over how much SNAP and Medicaid to cut while smearing recipients as loafers, set against Jeff Bezos’s $56 million wedding in Venice. His own 27-year-old son, a full-time bartender, qualified for Medicaid at the time. He puts the district’s losses under what he calls the big billionaire bill at 21,000 to 25,000 Missourians stripped of health coverage, and he charges that incumbent Ann Wagner — 13 years in office, no town halls, a net worth he cites at roughly $26 million per Quiver Quantitative — knows better and votes for it anyway. That is the sharpest thing he says all hour: not that Wagner is a fool, but that she isn’t. “Don’t lie to me. Don’t lie to my face and tell me you care and then vote against my best interest.”

The center of the conversation is disability. Nick raised the Say No to Crip Crow campaign he runs with the Disability Community for Democracy and asked Wellman directly whether he would codify the 1999 Olmstead protections into the Americans with Disabilities Act. Wellman said yes without qualification, then spent ten minutes on why — caregiver support that expires on a renewal cycle, home care workers who are immigrants losing status, and a deliberate choice of vocabulary. He says “warehousing,” not institutionalizing, because “it’s a place to forget what’s there,” and he named Stephen Miller as the architect. Both men are 100% disabled veterans, and Wellman’s answer to the perennial fraud argument is what his fiancée calls an “N of one”: build enforcement to catch the outlier, don’t demolish the system that serves hundreds of thousands. He closed on the USS Abraham Lincoln — sailors kept at sea because, in his telling, the administration burned the alliances and soft power that made port calls possible — and on a day-one agenda: end the tariffs, repeal the trade emergency, ban congressional stock and prediction-market trading, and open subpoena-backed investigations. If you want the through-line, it’s the one Nick named out loud: humanity is not for debate.

People, Orgs, and Terms Mentioned

People:

• Fred Wellman — Democratic nominee for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District; retired Army lieutenant colonel and 100% disabled veteran.

• Ann Wagner — the Republican incumbent in MO-02, in office 13 years; Wellman’s opponent.

• Nieta Green — CEO and founder of the Disability Community for Democracy, present in the live chat.

• Stephen Miller — named by Wellman as the driver behind the June DOJ memo targeting Olmstead.

• Elizabeth Dole — former senator whose foundation Wellman worked with on military caregivers.

Organizations / Programs:

• Disability Community for Democracy — the disability-rights org running the Say No to Crip Crow campaign; Nick serves as framing director.

• The Lincoln Project — Wellman’s former executive directorship, where he worked to peel veterans away from Trump.

• Elizabeth Dole Foundation — focuses on military caregivers, the family members caring for wounded and ill service members.

• Quiver Quantitative — the analytics source Wellman cites for Wagner’s roughly $26 million net worth.

Terms / Concepts:

• Olmstead — the 1999 Supreme Court decision that ended forced institutionalization and required states to provide in-home care services.

• Crip Crow — the campaign’s name for the re-segregation of disabled people through forced institutionalization.

• Warehousing — Wellman’s chosen word for institutionalization, meaning storage designed so the public forgets who is inside.

• “Strong floor, no ceiling” — Wellman’s framing for a social safety net that lifts people without capping what they can become.

• “N of one” — his rebuttal to fraud arguments: one abuser doesn’t justify dismantling a system serving millions.

Sources & References

• Wellman for Missouri campaign

• Fred Wellman’s Substack

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Nick’s Notes

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I’m Nick Paro, and I’m sick of the shit going on. So, I’m using poetry, podcasting, and lives to discuss the intersections of chronic illness and mental wellbeing, masculinity, veteran’s issues, politics, and so much more. I am only able to have these conversations, bring visibility to my communities, and fill the void through your support — this is a publication where engagement is encouraged, creativity is a cornerstone, and transparency is key — please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and grow the community!

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