We are 40 days away from primary day in Missouri, on Tuesday, August 2nd. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro reports that one female Republican candidate in Missouri’s 7th Congressional District race is trying to distance herself from the pack.

A total of 11 candidates, three Democrats, and eight Republicans, are running to fill Misosuri’s 7th District seat that Billy Long has held for a dozen years.

In 2019 first time candidate Audrey Richards ran as an independent. This year, Richards is back as a Republican, and she’s trying to differentiate herself from the predominantly older white, male, conservative field.

“I’m quite a bit younger. There are a lot of people who talk down to me. They’ll kind of talk down to me sometimes. I don’t want to say a lot, but there have been times, but we’ve been at events, and people do like a little, pat, pat, it’s not your time kind of thing.”

Richards, born in Joplin and lives in Kimberling City, is running on a platform of strengthening public education, expanding rural internet, and reinvesting in the United States Postal Service. Primary day is Tuesday, August 2nd.