JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal is gearing up for a likely Democratic primary against longtime U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay.
Chappelle-Nadal, of University City, this month filed paperwork to run for the 1st Congressional District to represent the St. Louis area.
She likely faces a tough primary against eight-term incumbent Clay.
Before being elected to Congress, Clay served for much of the 1990s and part of the 1980s in the Missouri Legislature. Voters elected Chappelle-Nadal to the state Senate in 2010.
Chappelle-Nadal cites her time protesting after the fatal police shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson and says more needs to be done to address buried nuclear waste at a landfill in Bridgeton.
Requests for comment to Clay's campaign weren't immediately returned Thursday.