Conspiracy-touting GOP nominee racked up more than $12,000 in child support debt

Missouri House candidate Steve West, who peddles bigoted conspiracy theories on his radio show, is running on a platform of “restoring old American family values.”

West, who on Tuesday won a four-way Republican primary in the 15th District, is twice-divorced and had to pay $12,000 to settle child support debts. He said his daughters don’t support his campaign.

“Just because I failed with my own family doesn’t mean I don’t believe in family values,” West, of Kansas City, North, said Friday in a phone call.

He said he surprised his wife one day in 2006 with a phone call while she was at work to tell her he’d moved out and they were getting a divorce. She ended up filing for a restraining order the next year, according to court records. He was ordered by the court to pay $849 monthly in child support in 2007, but a year later he was in court facing delinquent debt of $5,917, court records show.

The court agreed to lower his monthly payments and his ex-wife forgave some of his debt. In 2013, he went to court again to settle his child support debts, then totaling $12,000. He agreed to pay $5,000 to his ex-wife plus $7,000 in monthly increments.

“I settled up with my ex-wife and everything has been taken care of. It’s pretty much water under the bridge,” West said.

That ex-wife sees things differently.

“Steve was always delinquent on child support, financially he did not support his children,” Nanette West wrote in a text message. “His opinions, bigotry and rhetoric is not shared by any member of his family.”

Steve West also racked up about $1,500 in debt from tax delinquency. He was ordered to pay in 2010 with interest, but didn’t for seven years. Last year the court garnished his bank accounts to get the money.

West owns Dry Foundation of Kansas City. He has a Monday morning show on radio station KCXL where he broadcasts as “Jack Justice.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2018 at 2:27 PM.