As Republican strength in Missouri has grown – no non-incumbent Democrat has won election statewide since 2008 – Republicans increasingly view a primary nomination as the ticket to victory in November.
And on Thursday night, candidates from across the state traveled to Columbia for the Boone County Republican Lincoln Day dinner for a chance to win over some party activists essential to grassroots efforts.
About 175 people crowded a banquet room for three-minute speeches from candidates for offices ranging from city council to governor. Held each spring in almost every county, the Lincoln Days raise money for local parties and give candidates a chance to be seen.
Sometimes absences are notable, such as Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden of Columbia, a declared candidate for secretary of state who sent a surrogate Thursday night instead of appearing personally.
In the highest profile primary this year, for governor, long-time observers of Boone County politics said they estimate local Republicans are in roughly equal numbers for the three leading contenders. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and state Sen. Bill Eigel will split the social conservatives, they contend, while Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe will appeal to business-oriented Republicans.
Ashcroft, Eigel and a third gubernatorial candidate, businessman Chris Wright of Joplin, spoke on Thursday night. And so did others from crowded primaries all the way down the Republican ballot. Boone County Republicans also heard from four candidates for Congress in the 3rd District, three candidates for Secretary of State and one each running for Attorney General, State Treasurer and Lieutenant Governor.
Before the speeches, candidates lined up near the buffet table to shake hands as attendees awaited their turn filling plates. With Rowden missing, how his Senate leadership is viewed by his hometown supporters didn't get a test in the full room. In January, the county Republican Central Committee composed, then withdrew, a letter demanding he resign.
"I don't know what he's doing," said Mike Beckstrom of Columbia. "He's sure not getting the job done."
The legislature should have passed a ballot measure last year making it more difficult for constitutional amendments proposed by initiative petition to pass, Beckstrom said. He said Rowden shares a lot of the blame as Senate leader.
"We're going to wind up with abortion in the constitution," Beckstrom said.
Another local candidate, former state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, got a boost just before the dinner kicked off when former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks withdrew from the 3rd District race. Schaefer at one time was on the outs with the local party – he was soundly defeated in Boone County in the 2016 primary for attorney general against Josh Hawley – but received one of the warmest welcomes of any candidate when it was his turn to speak.
Mike Zweifel, a member of the central committee, said the passage of time has helped Schaefer.
"I think people have a lot of respect for Kurt," Zweifel said. "Obviously there were a couple of issues, as there are with anybody."
The speeches
The 3rd Congressional District seat is this year's hottest Republican federal primary, a scramble touched off in January when eight-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer announced his retirement.
On Thursday night, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, Brandon Wilkinson of Fenton, former state Sen. Bob Onder of O'Fallon and Schaefer were on hand from the seven candidates filed so far.
Coleman portrayed her political career as a religious calling and claimed authorship of the "trigger law" that made abortion illegal in 2022. Now, she said, her focus is on preventing medical treatments for gender transitioning for minors.
"I have done everything to fight back against the radical left," Coleman said. "They are coming for our children, when they want to convince a girl that she is a boy or a boy that she is a girl."
She also told the audience the campaign will be wild.
'You're gonna hear all kinds of crazy things in this campaign," she said. "I'm sorry, that's the way politics is. It's a blood sport these days."
Wilkinson, who challenged Luetkemeyer in 2020 and received 14.7 percent of the vote, said he's trying again to give the district a non-politician in Congress.
"I'm your neighbor, your coworker, your friend," he said. "I'm a working class American, a father, a husband, a Christian conservative, a leader in my church."
And, he said, a bulwark against liberals.
"These Democrats, Joe Biden, these Democrats, they absolutely are the enemy of America," Wilkinson said. "They want to erase our Constitution. They want to indoctrinate and take our children."
Some sparks came when Onder and then Schaefer took their turns. Onder is also making his second bid for Congress. He ran second to Luetkemeyer in 2008 and now his home county, St. Charles, has a much larger share of the district vote.
Onder tried to respect the admonition to refrain from criticizing opponents by name
"Well, I'll just say I've never identified as the moderate to liberal Republican, I've never lobbied and I've never helped the Chinese buy American farmland," Onder said.
Schaefer, after reciting his credentials as a fiscal conservative who balanced budgets during a recession, pointed out a weakness for Onder and Coleman he intends to exploit:
"I actually live in the 3rd district," Schaefer said. "I may be the candidate who actually lives in the third district."
In the secretary of state race, the three candidates who spoke – state Rep. Adam Schwadron of St. Charles, state Sen. Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg and Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller – said they were committed to election security.
Schwadron said voting rights should expire, like driver's licenses.
"I am proposing that your voter registration expire at the same time that your photo ID and you must re-register every single time to keep our rolls clean," he said.
Asked afterwards how he would reconcile that with federal law that requires a voter to miss two federal elections before being removed from the polls, Schwadron said the state could maintain two lists and provide separate federal and state ballots.
Along with election security – he wants all ballots to be hand-counted – Hoskins said his legislative record shows his commitment to conservative causes. He's worked to stop gender-affirming treatments for minors, Hoskins said.
"Those kids need love and compassion, not a doctor's prescription to cut off their private parts," he said.
Schoeller said his experience as Greene County Clerk makes him best prepared to secure elections. Strengthening the constitutional ban on voting by non-citizens is a priority, he said.
State Treasurer Vivek Malek, who is seeking a full term after being appointed to the job last year, was the only one of the four well-funded candidates in that primary to make a speech. He talked about his efforts to remove state pension investments from Chinese securities.
Paul Berry III of St. Louis County was the only candidate of five filed for lieutenant governor to speak. He said the office, which has few duties, can be molded by the officeholder.
"At all hours, there will be a state car that will drive me around and I will be the fireman of the state," Berry said. "For whatever the issue is for today, that's all I want to do."
Attorney General Andrew Bailey, like Malek an appointee seeking his first full term, gave the keynote speech.
He used analogies to his experience as a combat veteran to describe his goals.
"We're under attack," Bailey said. "The enemies of freedom, safety and prosperity, want to take those principles, those freedoms away from us."
Bailey, like his predecessors, has pursued an aggressive legal strategy to thwart and attack President Joe Biden's administration.
"I wake up every morning and ask myself, how are we gonna sue Joe Biden today," he said.
Bailey also bragged about his investigation of the Washington University Transgender Center. The university sued Bailey in December, accusing him of exceeding his authority to demand access to patient records
His goal, he said, is to end the treatments. The Transgender Center canceled pre-existing prescriptions for puberty blockers or hormone-replacement therapy in September, fearing possible litigation under a new state law.
"How dare anybody tell these kids that God put them in the wrong body," Bailey said. "We know he doesn't make mistakes."
The Missouri Independent, www.missouriindependent.com, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering state government and its impact on Missourians.
Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent photo: Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is seeking a full term in office after being appointed by Gov. Mike Parson, speaks Thursday evening at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia.
Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent photo: State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, a candidate for Congress in the 3rd District, speaks Thursday evening at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia.
Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent photo: Former state Sen. Bob Onder of O'Fallon, a candidate for Congress in the 3rd District, speaks Thursday evening at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia.
Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent photo: Chris Wright of Joplin, a candidate for governor, speaks Thursday evening at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia.