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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – State Reps. LaDonna Appelbaum, D-St. Louis, and Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury, denounced the conditions under which Health and Senior Services Director Don Kauerauf resigned from his position earlier today.
“Director Kauerauf came to Missouri with decades of public health experience, a strong understanding of the science surrounding COVID-19 mitigation measures, and a steadfast commitment to service. For all of these reasons, he was castigated and slandered by extremists in the Missouri Senate who have politicized a national crisis,” said Appelbaum, the ranking minority member of the House Health and Mental Health Committee.
Kauerauf was named to the position July 21 by Gov. Mike Parson to lead the Department of Health and Senior Services. He had previously served as Illinois’ Assistant Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health from 2016 to 2018 and possessed over 30 years of experience in public health and emergency management as a state employee.
“We face significant public health challenges in this state, and Director Kauerauf appeared well-poised to tackle those issues given his experience and his first few months on the job,” said Unsicker, the House Democratic Caucus’ policy chair. “Instead, Missouri once again finds itself in the precarious and dangerous position of no longer having a definitive leader at DHSS during a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 17,000 Missourians in the last two years.”
Both Appelbaum and Unsicker decried the tactics utilized by extremist senators to effectively oust Kauerauf from his position.
“The senators who operated this smear campaign should be ashamed of themselves for expelling a qualified professional form our state,” Appelbaum said. “Instead, this will just empower them to continue working in their own self-serving interests and not in the interests of Missourians.”
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