This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 2, 2012 - As he campaigns to win election to the U.S. Senate, Republican Todd Akin has framed his quest – much as he has fashioned his life – as a modern-day Minuteman challenging the status quo.
In fact, Akin believes that a visit as a young boy to the Minuteman National Historical Park in Massachusetts, near the site of the first confrontation between the colonists and the British in 1775, was the “seed planted when you are very young” that later grew into his political career.
The park features a bronze statue of a Minuteman, which Akin, now 65, can still describe in detail, down to the tri-cornered hat and musket. “As a little kid I saw that, and I guess it maybe planted the idea in my heart, ‘America is a great country and it’s worth fighting for,’ “ Akin said.
But there were significant detours before he got to it -- or to a political career, which he sees as taking on the establishment within his own party, as well as those running Washington.
Born in New York City, Akin mainly grew up in the St. Louis area, with a short stay in Massachusetts (which explains the Minuteman visit) while his father went to business school at Harvard.
Akin’s father was the third family member to head Laclede Steel Corp. in St. Louis. Todd Akin attended John Burroughs, a prestigious and expensive college preparatory school, but he often tells the story of his father declining to buy him a car – instead giving him some tools and telling young Todd to build one.
Akin went on to obtain an engineering degree in 1971 from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., joking that he opted to study engineering because he liked math and didn't want to take any foreign language classes – a requirement for many other degrees.
Akin also was in the ROTC program, he says, which led to a brief foray of a few months in the military after graduation. He says he underwent basic training, then got special training in combat engineering. Akin said he had expected to be sent to Vietnam but was told that there were too many second lieutenants and so he had an option to go into the active reserves. He did, “and the active reserves later became the inactive reserves,’’ Akin said.
Akin then got a job with IBM and met his future wife, Lulli, during the training. “IBM was three-piece suits, non-union, a good job, exciting,” Akin said, recounting his job traveling to sell the computer giant’s large systems.
By 1976, he was married. By 1978, Akin was back in St. Louis, in charge of maintenance at Laclede Steel, then headed by his father. “My dad and I get along very well, a positive experience,” Todd Akin said.
But after a few years, Akin left Laclede to spend three years attending the theologically conservative Covenant Theological Seminary associated with the Presbyterian Church of America. Akin said he decided that he didn’t want to be a pastor and “took a couple years and I studied all about the founding of our country, kind of from the point of view of an engineer.”
During the 1980s, Akin also embraced his wife’s decision to school their children at home. He says he was leery, at first, but came around when he saw the improvement – academic and emotional – in the performance and attitude of his eldest child, son Wynn. (Akin has six children.)
Todd Akin is now a passionate supporter and defender of home-schooling and has fought efforts to require standardized tests for home-schooled children.
It was also during the late 1980s, Akin said, that he decided to enter politics because “I wanted to more directly affect people’s lives.”
In 1988, Akin won election to the Missouri House, where he served 12 years – quickly making a name for himself as a social and fiscal conservative.
Akin notes that Democrats controlled the chamber during his tenure, and says he’s most proud of his involvement in the effort to block any future governors from duplicating then-Gov. Mel Carnahan’s action to persuade the General Assembly in 1993 to approve an income tax hike (SB 380, known as “School to Work”) without a public vote.
Then came 2000. That year, U.S. Rep. Jim Talent, R-Chesterfield, decided to leave the U.S. House to run for governor. Since Talent’s 2nd District was considered safe GOP turf, a crowd of Republicans jumped in the primary contest to replace him in Congress. Akin was among them.
In that contest, Akin’s theme was similar to his message now: The federal government needs to be reduced in size, power and spending. But his campaign was overshadowed by the attention on the perceived frontrunner, former St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary.
But Akin ended up edging out McNary by 56 votes, taking the nomination by winning only a quarter of the GOP primary vote. Akin then won the seat that fall and handily has won re-election ever since.
His congressional record largely has fit in with his tenure in the Missouri House. Akin cites his work on military issues, notably to expand use of Boeing’s F/A 18 -- built in St. Louis – and his opposition to many federally funded programs, from school lunches to Medicare’s prescription drug benefit.
Also, while in Congress, he made a big push to pass a measure aimed at preventing the phrase "under God" from ever being taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance.
On a personal level, Akin said he currently camps out in his House office, to save money. His youngest child, a daughter, is about to go to college.
Overall, Akin says the path of his life and career reflects his belief that “if people follow the inclination of their heart,” they can succeed.
And he suspects that also was at the core of many a Minuteman.
