JEFFERSON CITY — A new candidate vetting system advanced by an activist wing of the Missouri GOP is dividing the state party, highlighting broader disagreements among Republicans ahead of the 2024 primaries.
A “vetting manual” being floated in GOP circles has sparked conflict, in part because it seeks to block certain candidates from running as Republicans. The state party has warned the document would invite litigation.
Efforts to institute the vetting plan are still playing out, and only a handful of county parties have adopted the system, according to a state party official.
The movement bears similarities to the ongoing struggle between hard-line and main-line Republicans in the state Legislature, a conflict that is coming into focus as the Aug. 6 GOP primary approaches.
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Ties exist between Cyndia Haggard, chair of the Vernon County Republican Central Committee who recently formed a group focused on candidate vetting, and state Sen. Bill Eigel, a contender for governor. Eigel is part of a slate of Republican hard-liners running against statewide candidates allied with retiring Republican Gov. Mike Parson.
In Missouri, while legislative Democrats have largely remained unified in the minority, the super-majority Republicans have fractured along ideological lines.
The divisions are especially deep in the state Senate, where hard-line members have antagonized main-line Republicans — promoting culture war issues, pushing for more extreme gerrymandering, and for dramatic changes to how and how much Missourians are taxed.
In the Republican primary for governor, Eigel faces Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Parson ally, and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is running to the right of Kehoe and whose last name is well-known to Missourians.
Eigel, first elected to the state Senate in 2016 as a political outsider, is now running an insurgent campaign against the two statewide officials, casting himself as a champion of the party’s grassroots.
, Eigel was joined in a photo by state Sens. Denny Hoskins and Rick Brattin, and former state Sen. Bob Onder, at an Eigel campaign rally.
While Eigel is running for governor, Hoskins is running for secretary of state, Onder is running for lieutenant governor, and Brattin is running for reelection against two current House members.
“The Conservative Slate,” Eigel announced. In a separate picture attached to the post, Eigel is photographed with Haggard.
“Thank you to everyone who showed up on a Tuesday night to be a part of our efforts. MO grassroots are OUTSTANDING!” he said.
Always a pleasure to get to speak alongside my great friend & incredible patriot ! & thanks to & for coming to support! The Conservative Slate!
— William Eigel (@BillEigel)
Most importantly… thank you to everyone who showed up on a Tuesday night to be a part of our…
Eigel said Wednesday that Republican officials should vet both county and state candidates. He dismissed the notion that Haggard’s support for him in the primary presented a conflict of interest.
“Folks are supporting me because I’m the most in line with the GOP platform and I will disrupt the status quo in Jefferson City,” Eigel said in a text message. “It is never a conflict of interest to vet candidates and also support candidates that align philosophically.”
He said the vetting process uses “the grading scale of multiple national and state sources” to grade candidate voting records, and “not any one person’s subjective feelings.”
Miles Ross, executive director of the Missouri GOP, said the state party opposes adoption of the vetting process at the state level.
County parties may only bar county-level candidates from running as Republicans, but potential rejection of legislative and statewide candidates would require approval by the state Republican Party.
The party “at this time has no plans to adopt this — this scheme,” Ross said.
“We have a lot of big things that are going on next year,” he added, referencing the party-run presidential caucus, as well as presidential, U.S. Senate, governor, statewide and legislative races.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, to focus on,” Ross said. “And this is not one of the things we need to focus on right now.”
Opposite the Eigel slate is Vivek Malek, whom Parson appointed state treasurer last year; Senate President Caleb Rowden of Columbia, who is running for secretary of state and who has clashed with the hard-liners; Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who is running for governor; and state Sen. Holly Rehder, who is running for lieutenant governor against Onder. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough, a Parson ally, could also run for lieutenant governor.
Local debate
The debate locally has been laid at the feet of county-level Republican officials, who have been forced to tread cautiously amid tensions.
Bob Eno, chairman of the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee, said the county central committee — representing one of Missouri’s largest countywide banks of Republican voters — would vote on the vetting manual at its Jan. 11 meeting.
Eno emphasized that the county party already conducts vetting of candidates — a process that hasn’t involved blocking prospective officeholders from running as Republicans.
“I think we’re gonna continue doing what we’ve been doing,” Eno said, noting most Republicans believed in vetting. In a state as deeply red as Missouri, “a lot of people are running as Republicans that are not Republicans.”
Eno noted that in the 2020 primary, the county party endorsed the eventual winner, current state Rep. Richard West of Wentzville, in a race in which the county party said the other Republican running was “actually a Democrat.”
Eno said he would be open to a new vetting process if enough members of the party’s central committee convince one another to go along with the change.
County clerk questions
Franklin County, also home to a large number of Republicans near Ƶ, is among counties that have so far adopted the new vetting procedures.
But Franklin County Clerk Tim Baker, a Republican who is running for lieutenant governor, said that if a candidate declares in paperwork that they are a Republican, state law requires him to list them on the ballot as one.
He said he has long acted as a “pass through” for filing fee checks headed to the county central committee.
“If they can dispute it and I get a court document, court ruling, that says their name needs to be removed, then I’ll remove their name,” Baker said. “But until that time, they would run in that particular party.”
He told an official in Ashcroft’s secretary of state’s office that his attorney had instructed him to accept a candidate’s affidavit “and let the party go to court on the matter” even if the party had not vetted the candidate. He asked if the state agreed.
Trish Vincent, executive deputy secretary of state/chief of staff for Ashcroft, told Baker in a Dec. 4 email that “The SOS will not give legal advice.”
“You know what the law states and you are the county clerk to make whatever decision you decide based on the law,” she said. “You may also seek legal counsel, which you have done. The decision is ultimately in your hands on how you handle the questions you have noted below.”