Kacen Bayless | (TNS) The Kansas City Star

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Cole County judge will decide whether the Missouri Republican Party can block a candidate with alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan from running for governor as a Republican.

Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker held a one-day trial in Jefferson City on Thursday over a lawsuit from the state party seeking to remove the candidate, Darrell Leon McClanahan III, from the August ballot.

McClanahan, who resides in Milo, a small village in southwestern Vernon County, filed to run for governor as a Republican and paid his $500 filing fee in February. 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 appeared to be a hooded Ku Klux Klan robe.

The lawsuit names as defendants both McClanahan and Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is also running for governor. Walker did not immediately rule on the lawsuit on Thursday.

“The only reason…the party seeks to have him not on the ballot is his avowed membership and endorsement of Ku Klux Klan principles,” Lowell Pearson, an attorney for the party, said on Thursday.

The Missouri GOP argues in its lawsuit it has chosen to disassociate with McClanahan due to his “racism and antisemitism.” That decision, the party argues, is protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Pearson also argued, relying on testimony from Miles Ross, the party’s executive director, that it would be “factually impossible” for the party to vet every single candidate before it accepts their filing fee.

David Roland, an attorney for McClanahan, on Thursday criticized the lawsuit as “political theater.” He argued that the party had opportunities to reject McClanahan’s filing fee but chose not to do so.

“They’ve chosen twice to associate with Mr. McClanahan. And the issue here today is No. 1, they regret that decision. And No. 2, they wish to make a political statement,” Roland said. “This is simply an effort to wave the flag and say, ‘we don’t want to be associated with people that we believe are anti-semites or racists.’”

Thursday’s trial comes just weeks before the final certification date for the August election on May 28. Unless Walker intervenes, McClanahan’s name would appear at the top of the ballot in the Republican primary for governor, according to the unofficial candidate filing list on the Missouri Secretary of State Office’s website.

The lawsuit from the state party 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 argues 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 wrote about 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 in March that he received an honorary 1-year membership to the League of the South — which the ADL condemns as a white supremacist group.

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 push to remove McClanahan from the ballot comes as Missouri Republicans look to hold onto control of 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 from Weldon Spring.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade and businessman Mike Hamra are the two major Democratic candidates for governor.

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