Colin Wellenkamp

Colin Wellenkamp is a Republican member of the Missouri House of Representatives representing District 105 in St. Charles. Colin supported Amendments 4 and 5, which were on the ballot in August. Amendment 4 would have made it more difficult to pass a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment, which opponents criticize as an effort to limit the will of the people. Amendment 5 would have eliminated the state income tax and allowed the state legislature to raise and expand sales taxes. Both amendments were historically unpopular, receiving less than 20% of votes. Wellenkamp championed a bill to get another amendment on the ballot, Amendment 7, which would use a wealth fund to eventually eliminate all state taxes–a plan that faces criticism from Democrats and conservative think tanks. 

Colin voted for the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” a bill opponents say is both redundant and harmful because it may scare off providers from practicing in Missouri, as well as target abortion funds and enable harassment. There are also concerns that the law skirts the 2024 abortion-rights amendment. 

News broke in August that Wellenkamp used AI to create proposed rules for data centers. Wellenkamp denies those claims, but the file lists its author at OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT.