Opinion: Election season serves as a stark reminder of Missouri’s susceptibility to hateful ideologies
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley speaks to reporters after joining challenger Lucas Kunce in the middle of the floor of the governor’s ham breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia Thursday morning (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
It was 1996 when Missouri last voted for a Democratic U.S. president—Bill Clinton. Since then, voters in the Show Me state have witnessed the rise and institutionalization of a political ruling class led by dozens of pro-Trump Republicans who have normalized far-right extremism.
While Former Gov. Jay Nixon was the last Democrat to hold the state’s highest office, the levels of acceptable outrage and a Republican-held hegemony in Jefferson City started under Nixon’s successor, the accused sexual abuser and alleged stalker Eric Greitens.
Greitens won the state’s 2016 gubernatorial election by pitching himself as a Democrat-turned-MAGA conservative. After a tumultuous tenure as state governor and a long-expected resignation, he punctuated his controversial career in 2022 when he ran for the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs at the time.
In a tact similar to his race for governor, Greitens had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump during the primary election. Trump split his endorsement in the 2022 primary between Greitens and Schmitt. But that’s beside the point.
This was literally one slimy and unapologetic abuser endorsing yet another slimy and unapologetic abuser. Luckily, the Missouri GOP saw Greitens as a problematic figure and nominated Schmitt, who is also a waste of space.
Including the fact we have seen unaccountable MAGA leaders like Greitens rise to power in this state, it isn’t surprising that two years later, the 2024 Republican ballot in Missouri is a host of the most loyal and extreme pro-Trump Republican apparatchiks.
While Greitens is just one of the many symptoms of what ills Missouri, many of those running for a federal and/or statewide office this November are, now indeed, still spreading a far-right MAGA virus across the entire state.
What’s at Stake for the U.S. and Missouri in 2024
2024 is a landmark year in U.S. politics as we have Trump vying for a second term and Vice President Kamala Harris trying to maintain a left-leaning, fragile status quo. I certainly have my qualms with Harris, such as her record of inconsistency on sex workers’ rights and sexual expression online.
But Trump is a whole different case. Over the near decade, he has been the center of the right-wing political world in the United States; Donald Trump has caused irreparable damage to individual liberties and social justice.
In his tenure, he centrally instigated the organized ravaging of reproductive rights for women. He gave a voice to racists, transphobes, and bigots. He is now flanked by a democracy-hating Ohio senator, JD Vance, who knowingly used extreme racial hysteria to stoke baseless fears about immigration.
That outrageous, xenophobic incredibility is now standard procedure in the party of Lincoln, and it has seeped into this state’s politics. Truly, hatred is on the ballot featuring a cast of assholes like Josh Hawley, Andrew Bailey, Mike Kehoe, Denny Hoskins, and others—all far-right figures running for office and are likely to be elected or re-elected in their respective races.
The Pitch has permitted me to run through the track records of these folks. I’ve selected Hawley, Bailey, Kehoe, and Hoskins specifically for this article.
No matter who represents you, all Missourians have the right to freely elect people who are stable-headed, who support openness and transparency, are bipartisan, and, most importantly, are not Trumpist bootlicking yes-men.
Josh Hawley
At the top of the GOP ticket is incumbent Sen. Josh Hawley, bootlicker extraordinaire. Hawley is running against Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce to retain his seat in the U.S. Senate after a controversial first term.
The former attorney general entered federal office with promises to take on liberal Washington and aid his allies in the Trump-controlled GOP to hold big technology companies accountable for ostensibly censoring right-wing personalities on the internet.
He provided Missourians with a dismal record of success, voting no on funds and policies that support key programs that directly improve the lives of tens of thousands of Missourians.
Hawley was complicit in propagating Trump’s debunked conspiracies that the 2020 election was stolen in favor of Biden and the Democrats. These claims directly incited thousands of Trump followers and far-right militia members to raid the U.S. Capitol Building, which resulted in five deaths during the raid and four more suicide deaths of Capitol Police officers.
And his work to hold big tech “accountable” has also left him as a laughing stock as he focused on pointless concepts like his attempts to regulate video game loot boxes and advocating for efforts to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
Section 230 is widely regarded by several civil liberties groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, as the “First Amendment of the Internet.”
Hawley’s lawmaking record isn’t even the most damning thing. He has made a personal fortune by hocking his books, propping up highly chauvinistic viewpoints about women while preaching about what it means to be a man.
To him, being a man is being an absolute piece of shit. He’s defended and even platformed fellow chauvinists, like Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who said women must choose traditional roles over having careers.
Hawley backed federal legislation prohibiting transgender student-athletes from participating in interscholastic athletics.
Hawley lauded the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion and other reproductive care.
He even baselessly accused Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, during her nomination process before the U.S. Senate, of “saying publicly, it is a mistake to assume child pornography offenders are pedophiles.”
During the nationwide college campus protests against the Israel invasion of the Gaza strip, Hawley called for governors and Biden to deploy the Army National Guard in a bid to quash overwhelmingly peaceful sit-in protests.
And, in his most bold statement, Hawley proudly called himself a Christian nationalist at the fourth edition of the National Conservatism Conference.
Hawley spouted out, “Some will say I’m calling America a Christian nation. And so I am. Some will say I’m advocating Christian nationalism. And so I do. My question is: Is there any other kind worth having?”
Even Christians believe Christian nationalism is a threat to democracy.
Andrew Bailey
If that wasn’t frustrating enough, the presumptive winner of the Attorney General race, Andrew Bailey, is a piece of work. Vying for his first real win in an electoral setting this year, Bailey has earned a ghoulish reputation.
When he took over the position from Eric Schmitt in 2023, Bailey quickly showed his true colors as a far-right litigator with a hard-on for violating the basic human rights of LGBTQ+ people and their families.
He’s made a complete fool of himself in front of federal and state courts across the U.S. and tows the company line for Trump with blind loyalty.
The Pitch previously commissioned me to cover Attorney General Bailey. He’s a special case for my journalism.
Bailey expended thousands of dollars in taxpayer monies to impede the sovereignty of another state’s criminal justice system.
He sued the State of New York in the U.S. Supreme Court in a bid to overturn the 34 felony convictions of Trump in the conspiracy to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels and sway the 2016 election in his favor.
The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the case because he lacked standing, meaning there was no justifiable legal theory that supported his challenge.
He even filed an amicus brief with New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan—the judge in the so-called hush money case—asking for him to vacate the convictions against Trump—again, on the dime of the taxpayer.
Out of a sheer double standard on the equal application of justice, Attorney General Bailey worked actively to ensure that Marcellus Williams stayed on death row at the prison, in Bonne Terre, despite new evidence that would’ve led a layperson to raise reasonable doubt on his murder conviction.
Instead, Bailey railroaded a potentially innocent man and upheld the state’s authority to murder someone. All the while, the attorney general has wasted more breath hopelessly defending in absentia a felon who is actually guilty.
Attorney General Bailey has harassed and led a campaign of hatred against the Washington University of St. Louis transgender care center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He was handed a loss in a state circuit court when he tried to commit governmental overreach and demand the health records of transgender children and their families.
Bailey did so based on discredited transphobic journalism orchestrated by the disgraced ex-New York Times opinion contributor Bari Weiss.
Bailey said he would defend far-right members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus for falsely accusing an Olathe man of being the perpetrator of the shooting during the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade.
The falsely accused man, Denton Loudermill, sued Sens. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg, and Nick Schroer of Defiance for sharing an image of Loudermill and calling him an undocumented immigrant who was responsible for the deadly shooting.
Laughingly, Bailey also dropped the ball on the case of Murthy v. Missouri.
He claimed that the government censored conservative voices in tandem with private companies, like Twitter, before Elon Musk’s acquisition.
And, surprise, the U.S. Supreme Court said Bailey had no standing. Bailey is also an outspoken proponent of Christian nationalism.
Mike Kehoe
The presumptive winner of the gubernatorial race, Mike Kehoe, may seem like a more palatable option compared to his primary contenders.
This is the case when he’s compared to the racist bigot Bill Eigel. Kehoe has plenty of baggage placing him in the category of a Christian nationalist.
During his tenure as lieutenant governor, Kehoe has been on record in favor of far-right positions that emulate Project 2025’s fascist proposals.
Kehoe lauded the overturning of Roe and supported efforts in Missouri to deprive women of their reproductive rights.
He has supported and promises to support laws and regulations that deny lifesaving gender-affirming healthcare to transgender Missourians.
While Kehoe has previously supported some anti-discrimination provisions for gays and lesbians in Missouri, he’s proven to be a MAGA-supporting pig.
On the topic of pigs, Trump also endorsed him during the primary alongside his competitors. While Lt. Gov. Kehoe’s suave and level-headed personality may work for some, he’s just as problematic as incumbent Mike Parsons.
Lt. Gov. Kehoe will be more of a useful puppet for the deepest and darkest of the MAGA cultists who continue to unjustly rule over this great state.
Denny Hoskins
If those first three weren’t as infuriating, we can end on the presumptive secretary of state winner Denny Hoskins—yeah, that state Sen. Hoskins.
Sen. Hoskins won in a crowded primary over idiots like Valentina Gomez—the lunatic who set LGBTQ+ books on fire with a flamethrower.
But he is not that much better, either. His racist ass, as noted, is being sued for defamation alongside his Freedom Caucus buddies for falsely claiming Louderman was the shooter at the Super Bowl parade.
One of the only reasons why he ran to replace Jay Ashcroft was to continue to propagate the debunked Trumpist conspiracy theories. He also would carry on Ashcroft’s aggressive policies against public library districts and librarians across the state.
He’s a Christian nationalist, a card-carrying member of the far-right, and one of the most stubborn state legislators ever to serve in the legislature.
Are these folks the best our state has to offer our country?
While I might be bitter about these folks (and it shows in this column), there is no justification for Missouri to continue to slide even further into tyranny.
I am not naive to the fact that all four of the gentlemen mentioned in this column will win in November.
It just goes to show that they’ve lied to their constituents enough leading those people to believe that they’re the only way to move forward.
All I can say is, “Fuck them.”
