Before the big general election in November, Missouri is holding its primary election on August 2 to work out which candidates will make it on the ballot three months from now.
Polls in Missouri open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Don’t be surprised if you see more voters at your polling place than in previous elections. According to the Associated Press, officials predict more than 30 percent of registered voters will cast a ballot on Tuesday, the highest voter turnout in a Missouri primary since 2004, when nearly 36 percent turned out to vote on a constitutional amendment regarding same-sex marriage.
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
Find your ballot and a voter’s guide here, courtesy of the League of Women Voters.
Here’s a look at who’s on the ballot:
GOVERNOR
With Jay Nixon’s tenure as governor ending due to term limits, all eyes are on the four Republican gubernatorial candidates, who are running a tight (and expensive) contest for the chance to battle the Democratic candidate (most likely Attorney General Chris Koster) in November.
See also: The Race to Become Missouri’s Next CEO
Four Republican candidates are neck and neck coming into election day: John Brunner, a Marine veteran and businessman who completed his M.B.A. at Washington University in St. Louis; Eric Greitens, the Navy SEAL and author who pulled the unusual move of announcing his Missouri candidacy on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Catherine Hanaway, a lawyer who previously served as Missouri Speaker of the House of Representatives and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri; and current Lieutenant Governor of Missouri Peter Kinder.
In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch poll published Sunday, Brunner kept the lead with 23 percent of support from a sample of 400 likely Republican voters. Greitens and Hanaway were tied at 21 percent, five points ahead of Kinder, at 18 percent.
See Also: “Can Eric Greitens Become Missouri’s Next Governor?”
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Kinder’s decision to run for governor leaves his seat open for the taking. Candidates running include familiar faces former U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan and State Rep. Tommie Pierson.
Three Democrats will battle it out Tuesday for a spot on November’s ballot. Carnahan’s father, the late Mel Carnahan, was lieutenant governor before he was elected governor in 1992. Pierson is a pastor at Greater St. Mark Family Church, which became a major gathering place during the 2014 Ferguson unrest, and would be the first black person elected to a statewide office ever if elected. They’ll take on Winston Apple, a teacher and singer-songwriter running for his first elected position.
The Republican contest pits Bev Randles, an attorney and former chair of Missouri Club for Growth, against Mike Parson, a former Polk County sheriff and Missouri legislator who’d planned to run for governor until Kinder joined the race.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch poll shows Carnahan leading the Democrats and Randles and Parson in a tight race.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Only four states have competitive races for attorney general this year, including Missouri. The races have generally been overshadowed by the presidential and gubernatorial races, but Missouri’s race recently drew headlines after the Missouri Ethics Commission announced it would investigate Republican candidate and State Senator Kurt Schaefer, who is accused of pressuring Mizzou to prevent University of Missouri law professor Josh Hawley from opposing him in the Republican primary.
The contested race led to one of the more unusual campaign ads of the season: a Tea Party Patriots-funded, racially insensitive ad attacking Schaefer that features Chinese businessmen buying Missouri farmland.
The winner of that race will challenge either St. Louis County Assessor Jake Zimmerman or former Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley in November.
See also: EMILY’s List Endorses Teresa Hensley for Missouri Attorney General
Zimmerman leads Hensley in the poll from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Hawley is one point ahead of Schaefer.
U.S. SENATE
This race is worth keeping an eye on, but the real showdown will come in November. Incumbent Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is seeking his second term, and he leads the polls against his three primary challengers—Kristi Nichols, Bernie Mowinski, and Ryan Luethy—by more than 50 percentage points.
Jason Kander, Missouri’s secretary of state, has the same lead on the Democrat side against three challengers, including Chief Wana Dubie, a candidate with marijuana tattooed on his face who promises to “smoke the competition.”
For more on the impending general election showdown, check out this post from the Washington Post about whether Blunt is vulnerable to an upset from Kander in a “post-Trump reality:” GOP Sen. Roy Blunt faces tough post-Trump reality: No seat is safe
U.S. CONGRESS
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, who has held the seat for 16 years and succeeded his father, Bill Clay, Sr., who served for 32 years, will have to fend off challenges from two Democrats if he wants to stay in congress: State Sen. Maria Chappelle Nadal (D-University City) and St. Louis school board member Bill Haas.
See also: 5 Reasons To Watch Chappelle-Nadal’s Campaign to Replace U.S. Rep. Clay
Clay, an eight-term incumbent who’s won more than 70 percent of the vote in each election since 2000, originally welcomed the idea of running against Chappelle-Nadal “because of the entertainment value of it alone.”
But Chappelle-Nadal’s challenge is no laughing matter. She’s racked up a few impressive wins of her own and attracted new supporters by blasting the state and federal officials for their inattention to serious issues, including the Ferguson protests, the underground landfill fire near the nuclear waste site in Bridgeton, and concerns about public education. Haas touts a platform that includes a plan to require corporations to give employees time off each month to visit children in schools or tutor other people’s children.
Steven Bailey and Paul Berry are seeking the GOP nomination for the heavily Democratic First Congressional District, which includes St. Louis City and parts of St. Louis County.
CIRCUIT ATTORNEY
Following prosecutor Jennifer Joyce’s announcement that she will retire, St. Louis will choose a new circuit attorney for the first time in 16 years. Joyce’s successor will face rising murder rates and a citywide gun-violence epidemic at a time when relationships between law enforcement and some communities, especially communities of color, are strained. St. Louis saw 188 murders in 2015, the highest total in 20 years. The 2016 murder rate is on pace to match last year’s after a bloody start to July.
See also: Violent First Days of July Put St. Louis City On Pace to Top 2015 Murder Rate
Mary Pat Carl has worked with the circuit attorney’s office since 2003 and has the endorsement of Joyce and the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association. She touts her experience above the three other candidates: “If you add the experience of every single one of [the other candidates] together, I have more than they have combined,” she told St. Louis Public Radio. “I’ve handled basically every type of case in the office.”
Kimberly Gardner was previously an assistant circuit attorney under Joyce, though she never tried a homicide case. She’s now a state representative and the only candidate with experience in an elected position. Gardner, who was a registered nurse, stresses her understanding of how mental and social issues intersect with the criminal justice system.
Patrick Hamacher is on leave from his position as assistant circuit attorney, where he handles murder, robbery, and assault cases and works with specialized units, such as a casino task force. He’s been with Joyce’s office since graduating law school in 2011.
That leaves Steve Harmon as the only candidate who wasn’t hired, trained, or recruited by Joyce. He’s the in-house attorney for St. Louis Public Schools after working as a municipal prosecutor for former St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley. Harmon is the son of Clarence Harmon, the former St. Louis police chief and mayor.
Contact Lindsay Toler by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
