Daily Inspiration: Meet Charles West

Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles West.

Hi Charles, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up on a small farm in rural northeast Missouri where we raised cattle, pigs and horses. Growing up, I learned the value of hard work whether it be working on our own property or helping the neighbors with their animals or bucking bales of hay and straw. I carried those values of hard work into college where I had the great opportunity to play football on a scholarship.

After a career ending knee injury, I joined the workforce where I worked my way up to the company and position that I currently have. My job consists of being on job sites and factory floors day in and day out working with multimillion-dollar jobs. I have the great privilege of working with the many unions that are involved with the many facets of our careers.

This career is ever changing in technology and practices and it’s something that can break a lot of people if you aren’t up for the challenge.

In my personal life I have a great fiancé and a beautiful daughter that have always stood beside me with everything I have worked for.

I wanted to be more involved in my community and have an effect on the betterment of my daughter’s education and decided to run for the Clark County School Board. I am currently on my second term and It’s great knowing that we are all there for the common goal to help our students and teachers.

After speaking with administrators and teachers, I realized that there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that need major changes on the state and federal levels. This in turn led me into researching what our current state and federal elected officials actually do to help our students, teachers and the rest of their constituents.

Seeing what is and isn’t being done is what led me to the decision to run for Missouri’s 6th District U.S. House Seat.

This journey has had a major impact on my life and I have had the great opportunity to meet the great people all across the District!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I first made the decision to run last year it started out smooth for the first month or so. Then Covid hit and everything changed. Covid has changed the entire campaign process. It went from door knocking and person to person meetings to Zoom and Facebook lives. This really made it difficult to get your name and platform out to the constituents and made it even more difficult for fundraising.

I made sure to attend county/club meetings to make sure to get my plans out to as many people as I could. I did this along with attending as many County Commissioner meetings across the District as possible. I decided if I couldn’t see everyone face to face I wanted to make sure to see what was happening in each county across the District.

This led to the knowing what our District actually needs.

We are now in our second year of Covid but are able to start meeting people in person. This has made a major impact on how I spread my platform and plans to each and every person in the 6th District.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I work for French Gerleman/Agilix Solutions which is based out of St. Louis, MO. French has been in business for 98 years and specializes in Automation, Electrical, Data, Power Transmission and Safety. As an Account Manager my job is to specialize in all of these areas. While doing this, I deal with multimillion-dollar jobs daily.

I am proud to say that customers have turned into friends and I have been able to make sure that they are taken care of daily and have what they need to keep running and in turn keep their customers in business and happy.

What sets me apart from others is that I consider each and every one of my customers as partners. So in other words, If I fail we all fail. I make sure to tell my customer we all need to work together to succeed and prosper.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice for those who are just starting out would be to make sure to be your own cheerleader. Believe in yourself. Have faith in yourself. Do your research. Ask questions. Network, network, network.

Contact Info:

• Email: charleswestforcongress@gmail.com
• Website: www.charleswestforcongress.org
• Instagram: @charleswestforcongress
• Facebook: @Charles West for Congress
• Twitter: @CharlesWestfor1
• Other: TikTok @charleswestcongress