Missouri Republican Party sues to block candidate for governor with KKK ‘affiliation’
The Missouri Republican Party on Thursday filed a lawsuit to block a candidate with alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan from running for governor as a Republican.
The candidate, Darrell Leon McClanahan III, filed as a Republican and paid his $500 filing fee on the first day of candidate filings last month. The state party has since disavowed McClanahan after a photo resurfaced online of him saluting in front of a burning cross next to a person who was wearing what appear to be hooded Ku Klux Klan robe.
Thursday’s lawsuit, filed by the Missouri Republican State Committee, names as defendants McClanahan and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, the state’s top election official who is also running for governor as a Republican.
It asks Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker to enter a judgment blocking Ashcroft’s office from certifying McClanahan’s name for the upcoming August ballot. The party alleges that it had previously asked Ashcroft to remove McClanahan from the ballot, “but he refused to do so.”
A spokesperson for Ashcroft’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
McClanahan, in a text to The Star, reiterated one of his previous statements, saying that the “Missouri GOP knew exactly who I am.” He said he was seeking counsel from several different attorneys.
“What a bunch of Anti-White hypocrites,” he said in the text, followed by a photograph of former President Donald Trump plastered with a quote of the former president saying that “immigration is a privilege, not a right.” He then sent 13 more texts, including one that said “White Power.”
The lawsuit from the Missouri GOP comes after the party last month promised to seek to remove McClanahan from the ballot, saying in a statement that his “affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan…fundamentally contradicts our party’s values and platform.”
Thursday’s lawsuit alleges that the party did not learn about McClanahan’s “racist and antisemitic past” until after he had filed for governor. The final certification date for the August election is May 28.
“Based on the ease with which individuals can declare their candidacy, a political party has virtually no ability to screen potential candidates to determine the extent to which the party wants to be associated with a potential candidate,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also includes examples of McClanahan’s racist past, including the photo of him saluting next to the burning cross, a social media post that includes a racial slur, social media posts “using Nazi imagery” and social media post that uses the phrase “White Power.”
But while the lawsuit said the party did not know about McClanahan’s past, this is not the first time McClanahan has run for elected office as a Republican in Missouri.
The Anti-Defamation League in 2022 highlighted the photo of McClanahan in front of the burning cross after he ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate. McClanahan, in response last year, filed a more than $5 million defamation suit against the organization demanding that the article be removed.
In court filings, McClanahan described himself as a “Pro-White man” who is “dedicated to traditional christian values.” He said in the lawsuit that he has never been a member of the KKK, but was instead provided an “Honorary 1-year membership” by a Missouri coordinator.
McClanahan told The Star in a text message earlier this month that he received an honorary 1-year membership to the League of the South — which the ADL condemns as a white supremacist group.
McClanahan in last year’s lawsuit said that he “did attend in 2019 a private religious Christian Identity Cross lighting ceremony falsely described as a cross burning” in the ADL article. His presence, according to the suit, was in response to a Charlottesville “Unite the Right” protester who was sentenced to prison for beating up a Black man.
McClanahan felt this was an unjust sentence because a “Black Defendant” received a seven-year sentence for manslaughter, according to the suit. A federal magistrate judge tossed the lawsuit last year, finding that McClanahan did not sufficiently allege a claim against the organization.
“The Complaint itself reflects that Plaintiff holds the views ascribed to him by the ADL article, that is the characterization of his social media presence and views as antisemitic, white supremacist, anti-government, and bigoted,” the judge wrote in the order.
The Missouri GOP is represented in Thursday’s lawsuit by Lowell Pearson, an attorney who previously served as chief counsel to former Republican Gov. Matt Blunt
The lawsuit comes as Missouri Republicans are seeking to hold onto the governor’s office after Gov. Mike Parson terms out of office. The major Republican candidates include Ashcroft, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Sen. Bill Eigel.
This story was originally published March 21, 2024 at 5:31 PM.
