With primary season in full swing, Republicans vying for their party’s nomination in different statewide races gathered in Springfield on March 9 for Greene County Lincoln Day.
Candidates for attorney general, state treasurer, secretary of state and lieutenant governor spoke to an estimated 220 Greene County Republicans on Saturday at the Oasis Convention Center, a week after twice that many caucused for Donald Trump in part of a landslide victory for the former president in Missouri.
Touting their accomplishments and criticizing their (mostly Democratic) adversaries, the aspiring officeholders sought to win over primary voters in the state's fourth most populous county for the Aug. 6 primary election.
The panelists were also joined by a number of legislators, Greene County elected officials, gubernatorial hopefuls and other Republican candidates.
AG candidate criticizes incumbent, cases against Trump
Will Scharf, a former U.S. attorney and policy director for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, got the floor to himself as the only candidate for attorney general at the Greene County event. Scharf is challenging incumbent Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in 2022.
Scharf was openly critical of Bailey, whom he said “represents the Jefferson City establishment” while painting himself as an outsider.
“We've seen the team that Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley spent years building essentially fall apart at the seams,” Scharf claimed. “We've seen cases dropped, we've seen cases mishandled, we've seen fundamental failures on the part of that office to do the work of the people, and I think that's a real problem.”
Scharf, an attorney on Trump’s legal team, called the criminal cases against the former president “an outrageous abuse of our legal system,” and individually criticized the federal and state prosecutors behind the investigations.
“Now, Republicans are used to getting called conspiracy theorists at this point; we get that a lot,” Scharf said. “Well, I will tell you that on the Trump cases, I am absolutely a conspiracy theorist.”
Secretary of state candidates look to stand out
State Sen. Denny Hoskins, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller and state Rep. Adam Schwadron agree on a great deal when it comes to election security, and all say they would work to prevent non-citizens from voting in Missouri elections if voted secretary of state.
Schoeller, who has served as Greene County Clerk since 2014 after losing to Democrat Jason Kander in the 2012 race for secretary of state, said his decade of experience administering elections would be an asset in the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office.
As the chief elections official of the state, Schoeller said he would work with the state party chairs to staff polling places with bipartisan election judges in urban and rural areas.
“When we have bipartisan teams, that’s when we can have faith and trust in elections,” he said.
Hoskins argued his experience as a certified public accountant make him best-suited for the secretary of state’s office, and touted a bill he filed to establish the Office of Election Integrity.
“They will be on-call, kind of an ‘audit risk task force,’” Hoskins said. “On call before the election, on Election Day and after the election, and stationed throughout the four secretary of state's offices across the state.”
Schwadron also promoted a bill he sponsored to prevent any attempts to federalize elections in Missouri, and proposed an expiration on voter registration.
“We need to make sure that our rolls are clean to ensure that no person who hasn't shown up to vote in 20 years but still maintains an active voter status because they returned the postcard, that they do not have the opportunity to have someone vote in their name,” Schwadron said.
Incumbent and legislators vie for votes in state treasurer race
Three of the four Republicans running for state treasurer — incumbent Vivek Malek, State Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, and State Rep. Cody Smith, R-Carthage — also sought to stand out from a crowded field.
Malek, who was appointed custodian of the state’s money in 2022, boasted role in pushing for legislation funding the low-interest loan program MOBUCK$ and his efforts to divest pension funds from “communist China and other adversary countries.”
Smith touted his sponsorship of a $764 million income tax cut in 2022, and a bill that the House recently passed into the senate that would prevent abortion providers from receiving Medicaid funding.
Koenig suggested his electoral success in a St. Louis-area district won by President Joe Biden in 2020 was evident that he is “successful at beating the left on big conservative issues,” and emphasized the need to make it harder to change the state constitution — an effort currently making its way through the legislature.
Senate colleagues seek Republican nomination for lieutenant governor
State senators Lincoln Hough and Holly Thompson Rehder were the only two candidates of a crowded Republican primary in the race for lieutenant governor to make an appearance at Greene County Lincoln Day.
As a tie-breaking vote in the state senate, and the need to potentially stand in or assume the governorship, Rehder said “it absolutely matters” that she is “the most conservative in this race.”
Rehder touted her support of the Second Amendment Preservation Act — which has since been struck down — and her sponsorship of a Missouri law requiring student athletes to only play on teams aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
Hough highlighted his advocacy of Missouri’s veterans and senior population as a state legislator — both focuses of the state’s No. 2 position. As lieutenant governor, Hough would also be able to continue serving on the Tourism Commission.
“I think the tourism side of this office is infinitely important and should never be never be downplayed,” Hough said.
The two candidates diverge on whether the state government should restrict foreign ownership of Missouri farmland.
“All this legislation ever talks about is A-1 — agriculture land,” Hough said. “It doesn't talk about residential property, it doesn’t talk about commercial property, it doesn’t talk about anything else. No, I don't think Missouri should ever be sold to China, period, end of story. I also don't want the government involved in my life or my business any more than we already are.”
“I do not think we should be able to sell Missouri farmland to China or Russia or anyone else that is aggressive towards us,” she said. “I think it's a national security threat.”
