NEW: Ann Wagner Caught Taking Credit For Infrastructure Investment She Voted Against 

Fred Wellman: “If she had a record that helped Missouri families get ahead, she’d be running on it.” 

Washington, D.C. – New reporting from St. Louis Magazine is calling out GOP Rep. Ann Wagner (MO-02) for taking credit for $42 million in infrastructure funding for Missouri despite voting against the bipartisan law that provided the funding. The funding was signed into law by President Biden in 2021, but it received broad bipartisan support from 30+ Republican lawmakers. Wagner was not among them.

“Ann Wagner has spent 13 years in Congress, and she’s still taking credit for investments funded by a law she voted against,” said Fred Wellman, the Democratic candidate running against Ann Wagner in MO-02. “If she had a record that helped Missouri families get ahead, she’d be running on it. Instead, families are struggling with high costs while she takes a victory lap. They need someone who shows up when it’s time to do the work, not just when it’s time to take credit.”

Read more below:

St. Louis Magazine: Wagner touts funding for MoDOT that she voted against
By Sarah Fenske
October 6, 2026

• Last week, U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner boasted about her work securing funds for the Missouri Department of Transportation. She posted a photo on Facebook of her visit with MoDOT’s St. Louis district engineer and said she’d personally arrived to deliver the good news about $42 million in funding for upgrades to I-70 near St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

• The only problem? Wagner voted against the source of the funding, a 2021 bill called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That Biden-era bill funded highway projects from 2022 to 2026. It received support from Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), among 18 other GOP senators and 13 House members.  

• Arthur Bryant, a spokesman for Wagner, initially pushed back on the no vote by suggesting the $42 million came from a February 2026 bill, one in which Wagner voted yes. U.S. Department of Transportation documents, however, tie the money to the program’s fiscal year 2026 funding, which came from the 2021 bill.

• Wagner’s challenger, Fred Wellman, didn’t mince words.

• “Ann Wagner has spent 13 years in Congress, and she’s still taking credit for investments funded by a law she voted against,” Wellman tells SLM. “If she had a record that helped Missouri families get ahead, she’d be running on it. Instead, families are struggling with high costs while she takes a victory lap. They need someone who shows up when it’s time to do the work, not just when it’s time to take credit.” 

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