“Round One” is now in the books! A vigorous and at times contentious August 2nd primary is complete. Congratulations to all the winners, particularly our statewide standard bearer, U. S. Senate candidate, Attorney General Eric Schmitt. In a primary that saw twenty-one (21??!!) possible Republican candidates, AG Schmitt still pulled out an impressive 45.7% of the statewide vote. In Clay County, the spread was an even more eye-popping 53.4%. While Schmitt did not take us up on our invites to visit during the primary season, he came close with rowdy events in Lee’s Summit and Riverside, themselves indicative of the growing enthusiasm that the final tally reflected. We expect to see him even closer to home before November 8. On a closing Senate campaign note, a special thanks to Vicky Hartzler who did visit Clay on several occasions including our Candidate Forum last October, Lincoln Days Dinner in June and meet and greets as part of her closing “Heartland Tour.”

Closer to home, congrats to Chris Lonsdale for winning the competitive House District 38 primary. With no Democrat opponent in November, Chris will become the district’s representative in January. Both Chris and Eben Hall ran extensive and energetic campaigns. Both deserve our recognition for their dedication and commitment. The rest of our General Assembly candidates had no primary opponents. For Doug Richey, he too has no opponent in November and will therefore be the newly drawn HD 39’s representative in January. But he still needs our enthusiastic support as he has launched a campaign to become Missouri’s Speaker of the House in a future General Assembly session. This is a big deal as no one from Clay County has ever served in this capacity. A huge vote for him in November will send the right statewide message. Our other House candidates have competitive races, and they too will need our support: Josh Hurlbert

(HD 8), Adam Richardson (HD 15), Chris Brown (HD 16) and Bill Allen (HD 17).

Speaking of Bill, he is running in the newly drawn HD 17 which cuts right up the middle of southern Clay County. Earlier estimates pegged this as a somewhat Democrat-leaning district. However, Bill garnered a primary tally that was only 36 votes less than in the similarly uncontested Democrat primary featuring an incumbent legislator with far more name recognition. My point is that this district is winnable, and we need to help Bill all we can. Speaking of “winnable,” in Clay County’s Primary, 52.8% of all the ballots selected were.... Republican. That favorably compares with 45.5% for the Democrats. Clay County is many things, but at least two things are true: We are a “bellwether” county which will be indicative of how Missouri goes overall, and we have the voter base and resources to win. We should build on both.

As for the County Commissioner races, we won some and came up short in others. Congrats to Jay Johnson and JoAnn Lawson for being the top vote getters in the Eastern In-District and At-Large contests respectively. They will need and very much appreciate our help to make sure that they prevail in November. And thanks to our other like-minded conservative Republican candidates, Jim Shrimpton, Noel Shull, Rodney Phillips and Josiah Bechthold for putting themselves “in the arena.” There are several “lessons learned” from the Commissioner races, including improving voter education to break through the “non-partisan” nature of these elections and to get our candidates who advocate Republican principles across the finish line.

A quick word about the incoming Clay County Republican Central Committee. There are sixty-six committee positions potentially available in the Committee. 38 of them are filled in the current committee. To each of you I express my sincere appreciation for your participation and advocacy for our Party. As for what lies ahead, Republican enthusiasm in our County has been very much on the rise the past several months. An unprecedented sixty-six citizens filed to join the Committee, including several for the same position which resulted in an also-unprecedented twelve competitive campaigns for Committee representation. When we bring in the new membership later in August, we will have fifty members! Some are returning veterans while others are new to our ranks. All are welcome as are those who didn’t prevail in their elections. We need everyone’s contributions, involvement and expertise. We have work to do and everyone has a role to play.

Finally, a note on voter turn-out. Prior to Primary day, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft indicated that he expected a 30% turnout. Thirty percent??!! For Clay County, our actual number was 23.3%. We have to do better. Admittedly this was a Primary election and we can expect better results for the November General. But still! One of our Clay County Republican Party objectives this fall is to increase our Get Out the Vote results, including additional voter registration and enthusiastic support for our candidates. By the time you read this, there will be ninety days or less before Election Day, November 8. There are plenty of opportunities to help. I invite you all to join in.