A man with a history of "honorary" membership in the Klu Klux Klan not only managed to make it on the unofficial ballot to be the Republican nominee for Missouri governor, but may even appear atop the official ballot when GOP voters vote in the primary this August.
Those revelations came to light last night when former Missouri Representative Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin) tweeted out a screenshot showing the unofficial candidate filing list for governor posted to the Secretary of State's website. On it, Darrell Leon McClanahan III's name sits atop more well-known GOP contenders like Mike Kehoe and Jay Ashcroft.
The candidates' names are listed in ballot order, and because McClanahan drew a low number his name appears first.
A 2022 article on the Anti-Defamation League's website shows McClanahan next to a man in white robes as both men give what appear to be Nazi salutes in front of a burning cross some time around 2019.
The ADL article claims that the organization's Center on Extremism has been tracking McClanahan for years, as he has affiliated with various white supremacist and Christian identity groups.
"Hey @MissouriGOP I just learned the candidate listed first on our primary ballot for Governor is a cross-burning KKK member who ran for US Senate 2 years ago and freely admits his KKK membership & white supremacist beliefs," Dogan wrote, adding in a subsequent tweet that he hoped the party would reject McClanahan's filing fee, calling him a "racist loser."
The RFT reached out via text message and asked McClanahan if he was the man pictured in front of the burning cross in the image shared by Dogan. McClanahan replied, “It's an invisible empire Yes it's me.”
But he denied ever being in the KKK.
"No I am not and I have never been," he wrote back. He then sent us a photo of Elvis squaring off in mock fisticuffs with Muhammad Ali.
Later on in the evening, McClanahan sent us the following statement addressed directly to Dogan: “Shamed Dogan I would like to respectfully request that you cease and desist from making defamatory statements about me on the X platform. Your statement about me being a cross-burning KKK member and white supremacist is false and damaging to my reputation.”
The message went on to ask that Dogan stop spreading “further misinformation,” apologize and contact McClanahan directly with any further concerns.
McClanahan directed us to a lawsuit he filed against the ADL and its head, Jonathan Greenblatt, in federal court in September.
That lawsuit concerns the 2022 article on the ADL site, which McClanahan argues was defamatory.
In an unusual legal strategy for a man alleging he'd been defamed by assertions he is aligned with antisemites and white supremacists, McClanahan says in his own court filings that he is a "Pro-White man, horseman, politician, political prisoner-activist who is dedicated to traditional Christian values." He also says that he has had "honorary memberships" in the Knight's Party Ku Klux Klan and the League of the South.
He also writes he "did attend in 2019 a private religious Christian Identity Cross lighting ceremony falsely described as a cross burning."
Greenblatt and the ADL subsequently filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit, and Judge Jill A. Morris issued an order in their favor in December. In it, Morris notes that, despite McClanahan’s denial of actual KKK membership or white supremacist views, his acknowledged honorary membership in the Knight’s Party Ku Klux Klan and membership in the League of the South, which supports “Southern secession and the establishment of a white-dominated independent territory,” means that the ADL’s allegations “substantially align with the truth.”
It is not clear whether the Missouri Republican Party can reject McClanahan’s candidacy at this point — or whether he’ll be on the official ballot come August after appearing on the unofficial one yesterday. He is presumably on the unofficial ballot because the party accepted his filing fee and paperwork.
On the other side of the political aisle, the state Democratic Party refused this week to accept the filing fee of state Representative Sarah Unsicker (D-Shrewsbury), who had previously stated her intention to run for governor as a Democrat
Last December, Unsicker was blacklisted from her party after touting her friendship with an alt-right troll who has a history of antisemitism. She then began spouting her own antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Now if Unsicker wants to run for governor, she’ll need to collect 10,000 signatures in order to get on the ballot.
As of right now, her name does not appear on the unofficial ballot for the Democratic primary for governor.
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