Missouri farmers, anti-abortion advocates split endorsements in race for 4th District
Two of Missouri’s largest advocacy groups took divergent paths this week, endorsing two competing candidates in the crowded Republican primary race for U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s seat in Congress.
On Tuesday, Missouri’s largest farming advocacy organization jumped into an open-seat primary election for the first time in history, endorsing Republican cattle farmer Kalena Bruce of Stockton.
“Kalena is a shining star in the farming community,” said Trent Drake, chair of the Missouri Farm Bureau’s local endorsement committee.
Two days later, in the dining room of a Columbia hotel, one of the state’s biggest anti-abortion groups took a different route, backing one of Bruce’s Republican opponents, state Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville.
“Rick is a proven candidate on our values,” said Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right to Life.
The two differing endorsements represent a split in the 4th Congressional District Republican primary race, where eight candidates are vying to represent a district that Hartzler held for more than a decade. It’s also an apparent divide between two of the Republican Party’s largest constituencies.
The Missouri Farm Bureau and Missouri Right to Life represent two important constituencies for Missouri Republicans, the agricultural industry and social conservatism, said David Lightner, GOP chair of Jackson County, a portion of which is located in the 4th District.
“Those two groups are going to be predominant in the deciding of this race,” Lightner said.
Hartzler, who is giving up the seat to run for U.S. Senate, had both an agricultural background and strong social conservative credentials. Potential successors will need to appeal to both groups to win the primary.
“From a social issue, Missouri Right to Life is going to support someone who has shown where they’re at with their general ideals. They are supporting their social agenda,” Lightner said. “Then, from the business standpoint, the farm industry is going to support one of their own.”
The race for Missouri’s 4th District also includes former Fox 4 anchor Mark Alford, former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks, former St. Louis Blues player Jim Campbell, retired police officer William Irwin and entrepreneur Kyle LaBrue.
The endorsements show that candidates are seeking to appeal to the 4th District’s large farming and anti-abortion electorates. Bruce has focused on being a conservative outsider and pushed her agriculture expertise. Brattin has used his background as a strict social conservative in the Missouri legislature throughout his campaign.
Bruce, a CPA who owns an accounting firm in Bolivar, has largely centered her campaign around her background as a fifth generation farmer. On her roughly 3,500-acre farm, her family maintains a more than 600-cow herd of black and red Angus cattle.
That farming background has also earned her the backing of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who owns his own farm near Bolivar. In a statement about Parson’s endorsement, Bruce touted their shared “conservative values, life experiences, and background as farmers and small business owners.”
The support of the current governor and the state’s largest farming organization could boost Bruce’s campaign in a part of the state that Hartzler won while touting a similar farming background. Missouri is home to 95,000 farms which cover two-thirds of the state’s total land acreage, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
In its endorsement announcement, the Missouri Farm Bureau described Bruce’s values as “Farm Bureau values.” Founded in 1916, the organization advocates for policy measures and political candidates that promote Missouri’s farming industry.
“With all analysts agreeing that the Fourth District seat will be decided in the primary, trustees determined it was appropriate to get involved in the race at this time,” the group’s endorsement announcement said. “It is fitting that this historic endorsement was earned by a longtime grassroots leader within the organization.”
In the same week that Bruce scooped up the endorsement of her fellow farmers, Brattin gained support from the anti-abortion, social-conservative group Missouri Right to Life. The group’s states its goals as identifying and supporting pro-life political candidates and opposing pro-abortion candidates.
In a June 8 letter to Bruce, Missouri Right to Life PAC Chair Dave Plemmons said she had a good candidate survey, but indicated that the organization would be endorsing Brattin.
“You are running in a race with a current legislator with a proven pro-life record on all pro-life issues,” the letter said, referring to Brattin. “Because of this, MRL Federal PAC is issuing a single endorsement of this legislator in this race.”
While Bruce did not earn the endorsement of Missouri Right to Life, her senior advisor Steele Shippy touted her anti-abortion credentials in a statement to The Star.
“As a conservative outsider and a first time candidate, Kalena Bruce clearly has the momentum in this race,” he said. “She was designated a pro-life candidate by Missouri Right to Life.” The designation is a step below an endorsement.
“She is also the only candidate to have launched television advertising this week with her new ad featuring her farming background and her Farm Bureau endorsement,” Shippy added.
Brattin is a member of the state Senate’s “conservative caucus,” a group of hard-right lawmakers who have often clashed with Republican leadership on issues like taxes and anti-abortion measures. His campaign has largely centered around conservative rhetoric like protecting faith, family values and liberty.
“The fight for life has been one of the chief goals as legislators that I have tried to embody and encompass and fight for day in and day out in Jefferson City,” he said Thursday.
Asked about the farm bureau’s endorsement of his opponent, Brattin said he differs with some views of the organization, specifically around government spending on agriculture, and said the tenets of his candidacy were “life, liberty and property.”
“There’s a lot of things within the farming community – of subsidies and things – that I have differentiated myself and I stand proud in fighting against any form of cronyism and use of taxpayer dollars to take from Peter and give to Paul,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the right way government should be doing things and they may have went a different route because of that.”
Susan Klein said Missouri Right to Life interviewed Brattin, Bruce and Burks before making its endorsement. Klein said her organization decided to exclusively endorse Brattin to avoid splitting the vote and sending “an unknown to Washington.”
“We did not see that it was a benefit to split the pro-life vote in this race,” he said. “As far as farmers…our membership is broad…and they feel very strongly about the pro-life issue.”
