The Post-Dispatch and the League of Women Voters of Metro ºüÀêÊÓƵ present this guide to the candidates and races on the Aug. 2 ballot.
SENECA, Mo. — Like many southwest Missourians, Brenda Burleson learned about conservative politics at home, around the time money started to mean something to her.
“My dad told me, ‘Nobody owes you anything, little girl. You are a Republican. If you want something, you get out and work for it,’†Burleson said.
She got her first job at a drug store when she was 15. She ran a restaurant. Now 66, she does seasonal work at a family farm and garden business and is coming out of retirement soon to take on more part-time work.
“It’s simple,†Burleson said. “We weren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We had to be conservative.â€
The Republican Party has become more complex since she grew up. “Conservative†has taken on a richer blend of economics, Christian values, gun rights and patriotism. Not only has the red tent gotten brighter, but candidates are less compelled to build on previous public service.
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Still, conservatives like Burleson, and many others interviewed during Fourth of July weekend activities in this small town on the Oklahoma line, signaled that their busy lives are a buffer from politics. Some knew the U.S. Senate primary looms — it’s Aug. 2 — but Burleson was one of the few who had her mind made up.
In a field of 21 Republicans, she wants U.S. Rep. Billy Long to win the party’s nomination.
“He’s one of my kind of people,†she said.
Long was elected to represent Missouri’s 7th Congressional District in 2010. He was part of a wave of Republican outsiders who won office in the wake of Barack Obama becoming president. The real estate broker and hall-of-fame auctioneer had signs up all over southwest Missouri years before he ran for office. A decade as a host on the KWTO morning radio show “The Talk of the Ozarks†also gave him name recognition.
“I am a straight shooter,†Long told the Post-Dispatch in a telephone interview. “I can tell you how the cow ate the cabbage.â€
Long, 66, grew up in Springfield the son of a homebuilder and stockbroker. His grandfather, Ralph “Cowpaw†Long, owned a furniture store in town. Long is married with two grown daughters; one of them is a pediatrician. Long, who often dons a cowboy hat, likes to bass fish and play poker in his free time. He’s Presbyterian but doesn’t like the question.
“I just hate it when people wear their religion on their sleeve,†he said. “I act the same when somebody is watching or somebody is not watching.â€
Long replaced Roy Blunt in that seat when Blunt moved to the U.S. Senate after Christopher “Kit†Bond retired. He was considered an underdog in that race.
“Billy is colorful and memorable and has some sense of the public mood,†said former state Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, part of the eight-way primary that Long won. “He has certainly voted consistently in a way that is reflective of this district.â€
Though he seldom participates in debates, Long has easily won reelection five times. While in office, he went on at least 28 private-sponsored trips totaling $216,000 that included six jaunts to Japan, four to Las Vegas and one to China, according to , among the most by a House member since 2000.
Long has a conservative voting record and was one of the first to climb aboard the “Trump train,†a phrase he says he invented. Kellyanne Conway, former President Donald Trump’s former senior counselor, is helping guide Long’s campaign.
But it’s been hard for Long to stand out from the crowd.
“There have been other voices in this, and his is one of many,†said Daniel Ponder, a political scientist at Drury University in Springfield, Mo. “It is something of a surprise that he hasn’t gone out to try and stake out a higher profile on various issues than he has, given how safe the seat is.â€
Long had to give up the 7th Congressional District seat to run for Senate. Blunt is vacating the Senate seat after a full career in Missouri politics. He served as Greene County Clerk for years before becoming Missouri secretary of state.
Though Long has a loyal following in southwest Missouri, he doesn’t have statewide name recognition. Polls in the Senate race indicate that he’s trailing far behind the Republican leaders — former Gov. Eric Greitens, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler.
“I can win this thing,†said Long, who says he chipped in $750,000 to his campaign.
Pulling ahead from single digits in the polls, with about three weeks to go in a statewide race, would be a big comeback. Some voters, even in his district, aren’t on board.
“He’s an auctioneer. I have a tendency to disbelieve their credibility,†said Ramona McCready, 80. “They are there to sell stuff.â€
McCready hasn’t made up her mind. She said she was leaning toward Hartzler.
“I personally am glad there is a wide field for us to make our decision,†she said.
McCready was one of hundreds of people lined up on Cherokee Avenue for the Fourth of July parade in Seneca, which drew from a large geographic area. Long wasn’t there. He said he didn’t attend any parades over the holiday weekend.
“I think he’s holding out for a last-minute Trump endorsement,†said state Sen. Bill White, R-Joplin, part of the parade procession.
Even though Long is a long shot, southwest Missouri voters are not.
“We can turn out Republicans,†White said.
Several Christian colleges and institutions provide a consistent crop of reinforcements in southwest Missouri, which has higher population growth than much of the state. The Assemblies of God, one of the fastest-growing churches in the world, is anchored in Springfield.
Household names from the area include John Ashcroft, the former U.S. attorney general, U.S. senator and Missouri governor whose father was president of Evangel University; Congressman Mel Hancock, who left a lasting mark on state tax policy; and Blunt, who in 1984 became the first Republican to be elected Missouri secretary of state in more than half a century.
Blunt’s career was supported by a shift in rural and suburban political winds that are now gusting against Ronald Reagan politicians like him. Critics call them RINOs, or “Republicans in name only.â€
“I thought Roy Blunt was great. I thought Mitt Romney was great,†said John Lawson, a retired pharmacist who recently moved to Strafford, Blunt’s old stomping grounds in Greene County. “Both of these guys have become so liberal.â€
On the parade route in Seneca, Eric Burlison and his team hustled through the heat. Burlison is vying to win the coveted 7th Congressional District seat now that it’s being vacated by Long. As a Republican state senator from Battlefield, Burlison said he’s the most conservative state lawmaker in Jefferson City, often fighting what he considers federal government overreach.
“I figured I might as well go directly to the battle,†said Burlison, the first in his family to graduate from college.
He shook hands with the masses, including Seth Cummings, 32, a truck driver wearing a T-shirt with a gun-maker’s logo.
“I like your shirt,†Burlison said, quickly adding. “I am a Christian, conservative Republican.â€
“Me too,†said Cummings.
As Burlison moved on, Cummings, a father of four, said: “We are all conservative Christians.â€
There are different varieties. Troy Lipe, 59, is a Christian. He didn’t have an opinion about the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade.
“Stuff I don’t understand, I don’t get involved in,†he said.
Lipe’s T-shirt read: “Tree huggin’ is OK … as long as you’re climbing a deer stand.†He was a logger sidelined by injury. These days, he’s been driving a forklift at work and a 2003 Toyota pickup to get there. The truck has 232,000 miles on it. He said he paid cash for the truck 17 years ago and hopes he can use it forever.
“I don’t waste my money,†said Lipe, who hasn’t been following the Senate race. “When I throw something away, the trash man don’t want it.â€
Sheila Staples, 67, a retired school teacher, stood near him at the town picnic. Her T-shirt read: “One nation, under God.â€
“Liberal values are very upsetting to me,†she said. “I don’t believe in homosexuality, but I do love those people. I pray that they will change their minds.â€
Apart from the Bible, Fox and Newsmax are her main sources of information. She says she really likes U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and dislikes U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ. She said Blunt has become entrenched “in the swamp.â€
“I don’t feel like he’s in touch with the people,†she said. “I would not vote for him again, so I am glad he’s retiring.â€
Lipe and Staples were part of a crowd congregating around a tug-of-war tournament at the town picnic. Each team tried to pull the other team into Little Lost Creek.
During one bout, Team Trump beat a team representing Simple Simons, a local pizza chain.
“It felt like we had them at first,†said Milo Shorter, 18. “They managed to keep their poise and drag us down into that water.â€
He’s never voted before. He’s not sure if he’s a Democrat or Republican.
“I am not either,†he said. “I am a teen. I just started living.â€
Randy Lankford, 57, the anchorman for Team Trump, didn’t have his mind made up either about the Senate race. He’s a volunteer fireman who works for a packaging company.
Laying on the ground, exhausted and skinned up from the latest pull, he said: “I haven’t paid attention. I am too busy working.â€
Originally posted at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 10.