Missouri Republican Party Archives

Missouri GOP Party head resigned early after troubling messages from Trump supporters

January 8, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

Former Missouri Republican Party Executive Director Jean Evans says she resigned a few weeks early. Her term expired this month. Evans tells Missourinet she made the decision after getting troubling messages from Trump supporters trying to keep him in the White House.

“The calls were becoming increasingly angry and demanding and threatening – never to the level where I felt like I needed to report somebody to police but just a lot of anger. It seemed inevitable, based on the anger I was hearing and the number of people going to Washington, that there could be some violence,” she says.

Jean Evans (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)

A violent and destructive pro-Trump mob descended on the U.S. Capitol Wednesday as Congress worked to certify election results. Their efforts delayed the process for a few hours. Although Evans believes there was voter fraud last November, she says Congress does not have the right to overturn an election.

Evans summarizes some of the messages that came mainly via voicemail, email, and social media.

“‘You better get up off of your blank and do something. You need to stand up and fight for this president or we are coming for you. You will be removed. You better get somebody to replace Roy Blunt. Do your job,’” she says.

Evans says the messages were not specific enough to warrant getting the police involved.

Some individuals insisted that the party provide buses to send Trump supporters to Washington, D.C.

“That’s not something that the party does. We don’t do protests to get people elected,” says Evans.

She says leaving her post early made sense.

“In my role as executive director, I really have to support and defend elected officials in the decisions they make. But I knew that was going to be extremely difficult this week because I just disagreed very strongly with the direction some of them were going,” says Evans. “Having said that, I’m still a Republican and I think the vast majority of Republicans were disgusted by what they saw yesterday.”

She says the president did not handle the situation well in Washington on Wednesday.

“The president is the leader,” she says. “Anybody who is in elected office, they are a role model and a leader. So, they have an extra level of responsibility here and the president failed miserably yesterday.”

She says both parties need to do a gut check and come together.

“We say stand up and fight. We don’t mean literally fight, but I think people have taken it that way. We just need to check our language and check our actions. I think all elected officials and members of both parties and see if they are making things worse or making things better. We’ve seen elected officials supporting this sort of violent behavior and it’s been escalating,” says Evans. “Quite honestly, we’ve seen it more on the left than we have on the right. You’ve seen times where you have mostly peaceful protests but then something happens. I think that is what happened yesterday. The vast majority of people who were there were peaceful, but then people stormed our Capitol. That’s really sacred. As an American, I think any American should be incensed with that. We are a Democratic Republic. There are so many ways to effect change here that are not violent. When they were taking down the American flag and putting up a Trump flag, that was just nauseating. We’re Americans. We don’t revolve around any single personality.”

Michael Butler (D-St. Louis) photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Evans, a former state Representative from Manchester, says America has experienced a normalization of political violence, such as the unrest that occurred over the summer after George Floyd’s death in Minnesota. She hopes that the chaos at the Capitol was a tipping point.

“I think there were wakeup calls all summer and nobody was listening. Nobody was paying attention. I’m frustrated today because I keep seeing and hearing Democrats blaming all of this on Republicans and saying ‘You know what, you guys were encouraging violence or at least looking the way for a long time.’ I think everybody needs to come together, condemn violence, and move forward. You can’t just be against violence when it’s against your beliefs. You’ve got to be against it all the time. You can’t just be for law and order when it’s defending you. Our governor has stood up for law and order and so do I. Our statewide elected officials in Missouri have been very consistent. So people who were attacking police in the Capitol, they don’t belong in our party. We don’t attack police. If you want to attack police or storm the Capitol, then you don’t belong in our party.”

Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Michael Butler released this statement after Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol:

“Today, countries around the world saw the scenes in Washington D.C. and saw the ultimate manifestation of the far-right extremism made more and more acceptable under President Donald Trump. But, unfortunately, this was the obvious destination to the path Republican politicians like Josh Hawley have built their career off of, calling the other side extremists, while building more and more anger and angst amongst his far-right supporters. Josh Hawley has shown America that his political ambition outweighs the safety of Americans and the well-being of our Democracy. He has aided and abetted an attack on our democracy and U.S. Capitol. Josh Hawley does not deserve to be called a Senator.”

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R) speaks to Missourinet during an interview on March 25, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Senator Hawley’s office)

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has been getting blasted on social media and inside his own party for challenging the election process, then sending out a fundraising letter during the riots at the Capitol. On the Senate floor Wednesday night, he doubled down on his objection. He said those who engage in violence will be prosecuted. But he said millions of Americans are concerned about election fraud.

“This is the place where those objections are to be heard and dealt with, debated and finally resolved – in this lawful means, peacefully, without violence, without attacks, without bullets,” said Hawley.

The number of Republican Senators who protested states’ vote counts declined after the rioting occurred.

Missouri Legislature sends “Clean Missouri” redistricting changes back to the ballot in November

May 14, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Legislature has passed today a controversial resolution that would ask voters this November to overturn Clean Missouri’s redistricting process passed by voters in 2018. The plan would let a bipartisan commission redraw legislative districts, instead of a nonpartisan demographer. It would also ban lobbyist gifts, instead of Clean Missouri’s $5 limit, and put a $2,000 cap on Senate candidate political donations, instead of the current $2,500.

Rep. Dean Plocher (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)

During Missouri House debate today, bill handler Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, says Clean Missouri prioritized the interests of billionaires in New York and Texas.

“It was all out of state money that funded Amendment One. Why? Where was the Missouri money? This is Missourians we’re voting on here. Our communities matter,” says Plocher.

Some Democrats say the proposed constitutional amendment could leave out certain segments of the population, including minors and noncitizens. Representative Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, says the measure would let politicians get back to manipulating the boundaries of their districts.

“I dare you to look at a map where one district wraps around another district, where one member of our body has to drive through three other people’s districts to get to his polling place from his house. I dare you to say that those are not gerrymandered maps,” says Merideth.

Rep. Phil Christofanelli (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)

Represenative Phil Christofanelli, R-St. Peters, fired back.

“Which judge gerrymandered the maps?” asks Christofanelli.

“I don’t know, gentleman. But I can tell you they are gerrymandered,” replies Merideth.

“That’s right you don’t know because you made it up,” says Christofanelli. “The Democrats made this up and they have been lying about this from the beginning.”

“Gerrymandering doesn’t exist, gentleman? That’s a powerful statement,” says Merideth.

“The maps have not been gerrymandered. It was a scam,” says Christofanelli.

Rep. Peter Merideth (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)

Earlier this week, Missouri House Rules Committee Chairman Rocky Miller, R- Lake Ozark, voted in favor of the resolution but made his own prediction.

“This is going to go down in flames if it makes it to the ballot. Flames. This will not pass at all,” said Miller. This will be as bad as right-to-work. This will be three strikes in a row against the GOP. So, if they want three strikes in a row – pass this. We’ll see how it goes.”

In 2017, the Missouri Legislature passed a right-to-work law, which would ban mandatory union fees in the workplace. The next year, Missouri voters overwhelmingly shot down the law.

Miller also said the Missouri GOP Party told him the proposal has errors that need correcting, but he did not elaborate.

Fourteen House Republicans voted with Democrats against the proposal.

The measure is Senate Joint Resolution 38.

Missouri Republican caucus system is set in motion (AUDIO)

March 14, 2012 By Mike Lear

The Republican caucuses are underway, with the first event having taken place in southwest Missouri’s Barry County.

Between now and March 24, 141 more caucuses will take place across the state at the county or township level. Some counties have more than one because of population size. Smith says, “Because St. Louis County is right at a million people, 991,000, theirs would just be too large without doing it by township.”

Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party, Lloyd Smith, says most of those will just select delegates and alternates to upcoming conventions. “In some counties they may say we want to bind our delegates to a particular candidate slate. That’s possible, but most counties won’t do that.”

Smith says those participating in local caucuses might not know what candidate a delegate supports. “Whether they’re bound to a particular candidate or not, there may be a lot of expression about who they stand for at the local caucuses.”

The number of delegates that come out of each caucus is based on the number of votes in the last presidential election for the GOP candidate. The largest in the state is Jackson County, who will select 174 delegates. Knox, Schuyler, Scotland and Worth Counties tie for the smallest, and will each select two delegates.

See how many delegates will be selected in each local caucus.

There is no limit to how many can show up at county and township-level caucuses. Smith says those who want to participate will need to provide a photo identification, and signing in verifies that they are a Republican for the purposes of that caucus.

Delegates and alternates chosen at the county level for their congressional district convention April 21 will choose 3 delegates and alternations to the National Convention and 1 presidential elector. Delegates chosen at the county level for the State Convention June 2 vote on 25 at-large delegates and alternates to the National Convention and 2 at-large presidential electors.

Before being chosen, delegates and alternates selected in the congressional district and state conventions will identify the candidate they support. They are then bound to that candidate heading into the National Convention.

Find out when and where the local caucus in your area is.

Smith says this will not be like some state caucuses, where “winners” are announced by the next morning. “I’d say by right at the end of March we’ll pretty well start to have a feel for who probably were delegates that got selected. Even if they’re not bound, we’ll probably have a feel for it.” More firm information will not be available until after the two state-level conventions.

AUDIO: Mike Lear reports, :58

GOP Senate candidates debate at Lincoln Days (AUDIO)

February 20, 2012 By Mike Lear

The Republican party candidates for United States Senator have for the first time been together in a debate, Saturday at Lincoln Days in Kansas City’s Crown Center. The trio said more on stage about the President than they did about Senator Claire McCaskill or one another.

: GOP Senate Candidates (from right to left) John Brunner, Congressman Todd Akin and Sarah Steelman

All three said the president’s health care reform plan must be repealed. Congressman Todd Akin said a new approach must be taken. “The way to attack Medicare is to get rid of the government price setting and use the Medicare dollars so that people actually have purchasing power and can make choices.”

Former state treasurer Sarah Steelman says Republicans are going to have to recognize that there is a health care problem in the U.S. “The cost of paying for insurance keeps going up and up and up and it takes more of families’ discretionary income.”

Businessman John Brunner told the audience not to forget that Senator McCaskill’s was the tie-breaking vote in favor of the health care reform package, and he told Republicans to stop calling it “Obamacare.” “I think we just need to call it the Obamacare program and go forward with that and keep those two together and repeal both of those folks.”

Infrastructure

The three were asked to consider what they would do to provide funds for highways and infrastructure. Congressman Akin says before he would raise the federal gas tax, he would look at an idea that has been promoted by the Director of the Missouri Department of Transportation. “I think we’d do better to copy what the governor or Indiana did, and that is to simply put some toll booths on, say, Highway (Interstate) 70, because when you do that it’s a user fee. If you don’t use it, you don’t pay the fee.” Brunner and Steelman both say they oppose the toll roads idea.

Steelman brought the infrastructure conversation back to one of the main budgeting ideas she supports. She says the government has plenty of money already, but needs to re-prioritize it through zero-based budgeting. “We need to go in to each program in the federal government and look at it and find out what it’s about. Is it constitutional? If it is, do we really need it? If we really need it should it be at the federal level, the state level or at the local level?”

Brunner says he would repeal the federal gas tax. “Why is the money going to Washington D.C. and then coming back in the forms of earmarks and political decisions in terms of what really needs to be fixed in different parts of the state?”

Federal farm policy

Citing the possibility the likelihood that the reformulation of the federal farm bill will be pushed back to next year, thereby falling to the winner of this campaign, the three were asked what they would do with it. The candidates focused on regulations, land use issues and restricting the hours that children can work on farms, saying those issues are the ones farmers are concerned with the most, though none of those are farm bill issues.

Congressman Akin said he would try to phase out direct payments over time, where he says the government is doing “sort of bail-outy types of things.” He also wants to separate out social programs, like food stamps, from the farm programs in that legislation.

Off-stage conflict

While the debate on the stage was low-key and congenial, the fireworks came to the row of reporters covering the event. A Brunner campaign staffer handed out a release criticizing Steelman’s plan for what she would do in her first 60 days in office. It said her plan contained no new ideas, calling it a “cut and paste” platform.

Brunner was asked why he didn’t bring the issue up on the stage. He said he wanted to keep a friendlier tone in front of fellow Republicans. “We’re gonna move down this campaign trail. It’s still early. We’ll have plenty of opportunities.”

Steelman questioned why Brunner did not bring the issue up in front of the audience. “He didn’t show up for the first two debates. Here, he had a chance. He didn’t take it.” She added, “Maybe he’s worried about me.”

AUDIO: Listen to the debate, 1:19:18