Democrat Mollie Kristen Freebairn filed last month to run against incumbent Mike Kehoe in the Missouri Senate's 6th District.
Freebairn noted in a news release she's lived in Jefferson City for 20 years, after growing up in St. Louis and in Long Beach, Calif. - "both cities where my father worked for McDonnell Douglas, before it became Boeing, as an engineer in the space program."
Freebairn also noted that her mother worked for the Missouri Division of Employment Security, "where she helped people who had been laid off during economic downturns get training, find jobs, and get their lives back on track."
Armed with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, Freebairn said in her news release, "I, too, became a public servant, an energy and environmental scientist, working to help develop an energy plan for Missouri.
"I worked at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for 18 years, followed by the last three years as a solar energy educator on the Board of Directors of Show Me Solar, a nonprofit organization, and as a consultant for Missouri Solar Applications, a solar installer based in Jefferson City."
She previously worked as a Washington University Medical School researcher.
Future energy policy is a part of her state Senate campaign.
"Missouri needs to transition away from fossil fuels, an outmoded, and like the name says, prehistoric form of energy generation that outsources most of our energy dollars to pay for coal from Wyoming, an energy rich state that has grown wealthy by using their energy resources," Freebairn said.
"Missouri is an energy rich state too, where solar, wind, geothermal, and energy efficiency are the most abundant energy resources, and far more advanced, intelligent energy technologies, with the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs and revitalize the economy!"
Her campaign also focuses on how people live.
"The rise of the middle class was made possible by workers who organized and negotiated for better wages and benefits," Freebairn said. "Right to work legislation is the latest move to further dismantle the American dream.
"Every citizen has the right to cast their vote, unimpeded by increasing restrictions, hard-won by all who fought and died for our freedom.
"The Equal Rights Amendment will, at long last, end the practice of paying women less than men for equal work."
Freebairn said she wants to "make a brighter future for our children, and for their families to come."
Freebairn and Kehoe are the only candidates who filed with the secretary of state's office for the Aug. 5 primary election.
Unless someone files as an independent or write-in candidate, they will face each other for the voters' support in the Nov. 4 general election.
The state's 6th Senate District includes Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Maries, Osage and Gasconade counties.