Clockwise from left: The Anti-Defamation League surfaced this photo of Darrell Leon McClanahan at a cross-burning circa 2019. (Photo provided by ADL); Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft speaks to reporters on June 29, 2022, at his Capitol office in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb, File); the Missouri state Capitol is seen Friday, Sept. 16, 2022, in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson).
The Missouri Republican State Committee has lost its bid to stop self-proclaimed “pro-White man,” Darrell Leon McClanahan — who once said he received an honorary membership to join the Ku Klux Klan — from appearing on the state’s gubernatorial primary ballot.
Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker issued the ruling on May 17, saying that no evidence was offered by the committee to prove how it might be harmed “by the fact that the Republican party’s own voters would have the option of casting their primary ballots for McClanahan.”
“If the Republicans in the state do not wish to endorse him, so is their right and they “remai[n] free to publicly disavow McClanahan and any opinions the Plaintiff believes to be antithetical to its values. If the party’s voters eventually did choose McClanahan as their nominee, it could merely indicate that the Plaintiff did not actually know or correctly represent the values or interests of its rank and file members,” Walker wrote. “On the other hand, if as in the 2022 primary election, a broad majority of the Republican party’s voters choose to vote for other candidates, this would seem to vindicate the [Missouri Republican State Committee] claims about the party’s preferences far more effectively than any statements the [committee] might make.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the committee said it only learned of McClanahan’s affiliations with the KKK and another hate group known as the League of the South after he entered himself into the race in 2024. Surfaced photos of him appearing alongside Klansmen and a burning cross preceded McClanahan’s attempted ouster. The committee noted that McClanahan had stated in writing that “he was a ‘pro-White man’ and that he wrote an article with a ‘Pro-White perspective denouncing Anti-Whiteism.””
The party itself sought to create distance from the would-be candidate by saying he fundamentally contradicted the party’s values and platform.
“In either circumstance, the Plaintiff has not clearly stated any particular harm it believes it would suffer from McClanahan’s mere presence on the ballot. This failure to articulate or prove any specific ham that might result in the absence of the requested relief also precludes this Court from granting the relief sought,” Walker wrote.
McClanahan has staunchly defended himself, writing to Law&Crime in emails that he is not a racist. In an email last week, his attorney David Roland said his client believes he has been “falsely accused” by groups like the Anti-Defamation League of being racist or antisemitic.
In court records involving the ADL, McClanahan has denied being associated with the Klan but simultaneously says he was offered a membership for a year through a local chapter’s coordinator. Records show he admitted to attending a “private religious Christian Identity Cross lighting ceremony” but contends it was “falsely described” by the ADL as a “cross-burning.”
On this ballot matter, his attorney argues the case is about the relevance of the unconstitutional claim by the state’s committee when it said “that it does not want to be associated with him,” Roland wrote.
“Its reasons for that desire have no legal or constitutional relevance.” he said.
In the ruling, Walker agreed. Under Missouri law, anyone who wishes to compete in the primary race for federal or state office is required to satisfy two main criteria: paying a filing fee to the treasurer of the state party whose nomination the candidate seeks and filing a declaration with the Secretary of State’s office in Missouri in a timely fashion.
Hundreds of potential candidates are processed in this way, Walker wrote, and “it is common for the Republican party to accept filing fees when a candidate offers them without first reviewing the candidate’s background.”
The Anti-Defamation League surfaced this photo of Darrell Leon McClanahan with Knights Party leaders Thomas and Jason Robb and at a cross-burning circa 2019. (Photo provided by ADL)
No laws in Missouri state that a political party must accept a prospective candidate’s filing fee simply because they pay it. While some changes had started to take place at the county level in Missouri involving “vetting” of would-be candidates for primary elections “with the goal of rejecting the filing fees of those that party leaders did not sufficiently align with the party’s values,” the judge notes, when the committee accepted McClanahan’s bid to run for governor, it wasn’t the first time they had done so.
In 2022, McClanahan had paid his fee and appeared on the state’s ballot for U.S. Senate.
This time around, it wasn’t until after he “may have made statements that could be construed as racist or antisemitic,” Walker found, that the committee decided he shouldn’t be on the ballot.
The Secretary of State told the court earlier this year it had no authority to remove McClanahan and nowhere in the committee’s petition to remove McClanahan did they argue that either, the May 17 ruling underlines.
“The Petition does not allege that the Plaintiff has suffered any existing harm, but rather that it will be harmed if the Secretary of State certifies McClanahan’s name for the primary ballot,” Walker wrote.
The judge continued, telling the committee:
Here, the situation of which the Plaintiff complains only exists because it made the voluntary decision to accept filing fees, on two occasions, that McClanahan offered in accordance with Missouri law.
If the party accepts a candidate that does not reflect its values, there’s just one due course ahead, the judge said.
“Its remedy is to make the voters aware of the basis for the leadership’s concern — then to let the voters determine for themselves whether they share that concern,” Walker wrote.
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