However, after President Truman, one man stands above all the rest. Christopher S. “Kit” Bond. 

You can find a litany of his accomplishments in his many obituaries published around the state, but when I think of Kit Bond I think of more than his resume. 

He was a larger than life figure. Missouri ran through his veins. His every word, his every action, literally everything about him exuded a love for Missouri. 

Kit Bond left such an indelible mark on this state and our politics that years after he left public office doing the right thing for the state even if it was hard, thinking long term, bringing Missourian’s tax dollars home to invest in Missourian’s communities, to this day, is an extension of the legacy Kit Bond. 

He was the man who didn’t preen and peacock about what he was doing, he was the man who produced. 

You can have all the Twitter populism you want, but you have to produce or none of it really matters. 

Kit Bond produced. 

You can be any place in this state from Caruthersville to Rock Port, from Pineville to Kahoka and you cannot drive more than a half hour in any direction without finding a bridge, a yard of water pipe, a runway, a mile of road, a sewage plant, or a facility at a college that Kit Bond didn’t have a role in building. 

Kit Bond was more than a Governor or a Senator. His accomplishments were so vast, his impact was so immense that he became more the legacy of the love and dedication to Missouri that lives on more than a single man who no longer does. 

That legacy lived on in his successor Roy Blunt. Imagine filling those shoes, imagine being entrusted to maintain and carry forth that legacy. 

Senator Blunt did, and today you can see that same legacy continuing on this year when his successor Senator Schmitt brought home the latest fighter wing to Missouri. 

Speaking of that legacy of putting Farmington over Fox News, putting Tarkio over Twitter, Innsbrook over Facebook. Kit Bond’s legacy continues on in this state, not by the loudest in the room, or the most obnoxious social media account, but by accomplishing real things for the people of the state of Missouri. 

It was fitting that Senators Lincoln Hough and Justin Brown were on the Senate floor fighting for places in Missouri like the hospital in Salem and the crime lab in Poplar Bluff when the news of Kit’s passing broke. 

They were on the senate floor continuing his legacy of working on the real things that improve the lives of real Missourians… the Kit Bond type things. 

I have my own Kit Bond story. First, Highway 67 would still be a goat trail without Kit Bond and his amazing district representative, Tom Schulte. However, that was the type of thing Kit did so many times all over the state. 

On a more personal note it was the fall of the first year after founding The Missouri Times that I was at an event with Senator Bond. We stepped off to the side and shared a drink, told a few jokes, and made a plan to meet later in the month. 

Well, later that night I was emptying my jacket pockets and found a personal check from Kit Bond and in the memo he wrote subscription. The check was for far more than a subscription. I was so honored I hesitated to deposit it, but I’ve never forgotten it. 

State Auditor, the 47th and 49th Governor of Missouri and United States Senator are all impressive titles, but to me Kit Bond was and now will forever be more than those titles. 

His is a legacy that embodies putting Missouri over oneself, and above all, loving Missouri more than anything else. 

Kit Bond was the best of us, and to this day inspires so many others carry his legacy forward.

Scott Faughn

Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.

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Taylor Burks

Chief Executive, Governor of Truman State University, a Commander in the US Navy Reserve, and a veteran– as well as a  Dad, Husband, Believer, Conservative, and Connoisseur of Dad Jokes.

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Everything once again fell into place for the Attorney General. Schmitt has had a consistent message that he was “not from billions, he was from Bridgeton”, which clearly resonated with Missourians.  

He was the front-runner after securing the Republican nomination back in the August primary election, which was arguably the tougher of the two elections. 

His Democratic opponent Trudy Busch-Valentine also ran a good campaign and put up a fight for the Democratic party including contributing millions of her own money to the race. 

Polls in the last weeks leading up to election night reliably gave Schmitt a significantly large lead over Busch-Valentine, as if there was a reason to think otherwise. 

Schmitt’s persistent, and sometimes controversial lawsuits against fellow Missourians rallied his base and grew support for his campaign, though some did not agree with this tactic. 

The Attorney General will go on to replace the retiring Senator Roy Blunt and join Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who defeated Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in 2019, who had served in the Senate for over a decade.

Brady Hays

Brady Hays is a 2023 graduate of the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in History. He is currently attending the University of Missouri School of Law and is on pace to graduate with his JD in 2026. He has been working for the Missouri Times since early March 0f 2022.

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However, The Missouri Times would like to make a prediction, Eric Schmitt will be a fantastic United States Senator. Give us a moment to explain how we came to this conclusion. 

First of all, let’s get a couple of groups out of the way that will disagree.

If you’re a left-winger who hangs on every vote, you are not going to like Eric Schmitt. It may come as a shock to you, but when he campaigns as pro-life, pro-gun, pro-drilling, and pro-tax cut: he is. So if you’re going to hold it against him when he votes like he has promised the state he will vote, then no you won’t like him.

Secondly, if you’re the angry right winger. Since this is a six-year term over the course of those six years he undoubtedly will do something that will return you to your roots of being loud and angry.

This Eric Schmitt that today you believe is this beautiful ideologically pure unicorn, a perfectly angry loudmouth just like yourself, will ultimately as the bloom fades on the rose to you become more of just a chubby unicorn, better known as a RINO. Just like everyone else does. 

With that said, for the truck driver from Chillicothe, or that gun store owner from West Plains or that nurse from Chaffee who gets up and works hard every day and primarily uses Facebook for pictures of their family, Eric Schmitt will be a fantastic United States Senator. 

Being a good senator is in large part about finding ways to earn the respect of your colleagues. Colleagues from both parties. 

In the state senate, Schmitt earned a reputation for being able to work with people from both parties, from all parts of the state. He also had a way of earning their respect. We think you can expect the same from him in the US Senate. 

He has enormous shoes to fill and he knows it. He is taking the seat held by Missouri icon Senator Roy Blunt, who took the seat from maybe the greatest US Senator Missouri has ever sent to Washington, Kit Bond. 

Those men were as revered and respected in Washington D.C. as they are in Washington County Missouri. Eric Schmitt is a student of history, he knows the responsibility he is inheriting is legendary, and the void they leave is immense. Knowing the responsibility you’re assuming is a big part of tackling it.  

Part of earning that respect is about how you handle the legislation you file. Now in the real world, there are two types of bills. Those filed to attract attention, and those filed with the intention of contributing to the public policy process.

In the state senate then State Senator Schmitt was very good at strategically filing a few bills to garner attention. However, he maintained the respect of his colleagues because the legislation he filed with the intention of becoming law he handled very professionally. There is no reason to believe that he won’t have the same success in the US Senate.

Eric Schmitt is someone who has a fundamental understanding of government. He started his career in local government at the Glendale City Council. Just as Senator Blunt started his career at the Greene County Courthouse. He then went into state government just as Senator Blunt did. 

Eric Schmitt has voted on a city council to spend the funds from a block grant. He has appropriated federal dollars to state programs. He knows what good those federal dollars actually accomplish on the other end. He has the perspective of what happens with those dollars from appropriation to ribbon cutting. 

In the state senate, he went to bat for his suburban schools to keep more of their money in the hold-harmless formula. This was not a politically popular move statewide, but he dug in for the benefit of the people of his district, and he prevailed for his district. 

Some have reasonable concerns about his handling of the Attorney General’s Office. Well, to be fair he inherited a tough situation and for the first half of his time in the office made it into an outstandingly well-regarded organization. 

There is no real defense to the claim that once he announced his senate campaign the office struggled. To be fair, there was some downright cartoonish behavior. However, the same fairness demands that it was his overwhelmingly popular work to force the lifting of the mask orders on Missouri children that vaulted him to office. 

The bottom line is that while some of the lawsuits were at best, stunts, they went over very well with the people of Missouri who were paying for them. Further, if he had not engaged in some of those fights for which he was lampooned for this state might very well have been represented by Senator Eric Greitens. 

After the primary should the shenanigans have stopped, well yes. However, if you’re looking for someone with a perfect record Jesus isn’t on the ballot for US Senate. 

In the end, The Missouri Times has covered Eric Schmitt more than anyone in the state, and in our view, as our United States Senator, you will find Eric Schmitt on Twitter and Fox News trumpeting the talking points of the day. 

You will also find that as your United States Senator he will earn the respect of his colleagues, fight like hell to see Missourians’ tax dollars returned to them, be the person this state turns to when they need those federal dollars spent on vital infrastructure for this state, and someone who will become a force on the national scene. 

His opponent, Trudy Busch Valentine is candidly a tremendous person. She is empathic, sincere, and we believe would absolutely throw herself into the role with everything she has. 

Unfortunately for her, things haven’t turned out as we’re sure President Biden had hoped. Unless the republicans had managed to nominate a completely unelectable candidate like Eric Greitens no one, including her, could have made this race competitive. 

However, when she got into the race Eric Greitens was leading in the polls, eager to make Missouri a national embarrassment again. We believe she got into this race in part to make sure that was a three-month, not six-year embarrassment. 

She has also done her part to hold up the top of the ticket and give democrats down the ballot a chance to hold on against an impending red wave. 

We will be the ones who remind Missourians of her positive contribution to this race and Missouri politics. 

Ultimately, Eric Schmitt did Missouri well by doing what it took to win that immensely challenging senate primary and starting tomorrow night we believe he will do what it takes to be a fantastic United States Senator from the Great State of Missouri. 

The post Editorial: Eric Schmitt will be a fantastic United States Senator appeared first on The Missouri Times.

Up next we took a stroll through the St. Louis area. 

The St. Louis day started the night before visiting with my ol’ pal Ray Hartmann on his radio show on the BIG 550 KTRS. He is quite the critic of Eric Schmitt’s, and I think maybe fell a little hard for Lucas Kunce. Ray is a hell of a guy, but Schmitt is great candidate, and just to put it Butler County gravel road plain as long as your having to swipe your card twice to fill up your truck no democrat was beating Eric Schmitt this year. 

Either way Ray is gonna owe me a beer in two years when he has to admit that Eric is showing him that he is doing a good job bringing back home our federal tax dollars to the Show Me State. 

The morning came quick, and I was up and out even before Coffee Zone was open. 

You notice a few things when you’re the only one awake, and I noticed that MODOT had put up

the signs for the Senator Roy Blunt Bridge over the Missouri. There probably hasn’t ever been a bridge, or any public building for that matter, more deservingly named that that one. Driving over it makes you think about the legendary and hopefully humbling legacy Eric is inheriting from not just Senator Blunt, but Senator Bond as well. 

When I got to the big city I got to sit in studio and visit with Kell Brazil and my buddy Rep. Richard West on Real Talk radio. 

They are both pretty fired up against Amendment 3. I have to admit the German in me with this very flexible elbow nearly perfectly suited for 12 ounce curls makes me pretty ambivalent about the whole thing, but Im gonna vote for it. 

I figure it ain’t none of my business what folks smoke, and I honestly don’t see any reason the legislature would make it legal any time soon. 

Richard and Kell were pretty set on that the amendment was too long, and pot shouldn’t be in the constitution. Well I tend to agree, but the state’s constitutional amendment process is way way too easy. 

These things get on the ballot without one signature gathered in southeast or north Missouri, but yet folks in Worth and Wayne Counties still have to live under the laws in a process they are intentionally shut out of. But let’s be honest there ain’t one person in that capitol except Governor Parson or Dean Plocher that cares about folks in Worth or Wayne Counties. 

Hell the super majority of republicans could barely pass an ag bill, but you just watch those same weak pliable rural republicans Wednesday will vote to put people in leadership that didn’t vote for the ag bill. Then they’ll blather on Facebook about the rural values they didn’t give a damn about having the balls to stand up for two hours earlier. It’s a vicious cycle when you’re as easy as a prom date like we’ve become in rural Missouri. 

I tend to think that the current system lets folks who wanna smoke pot, roll their dubies but kinda keep if out of sight of my mama. I think it’s done well enough to let it expand a little. However, if the folks who didn’t get their licenses in the first round get their way and it goes down it won’t change the number of fatties this daddy lights up in any way. 

You know maybe the folks fired up about this pot deal should put some of that effort into changing the amendment process. 

Until then I don’t hate the players, I hate the game. 

From there I got to sit down with Senator Paul Wieland for our Show Me Missouah interview series with legislators retiring this year. 

He has a had a great political career from serving in the house minority in the 90’s to serving in the house after the watershed 2010 election. He also served in the senate with some of the giants like Senators Richard, Kehoe, and Wasson as well as serving in the last four years of infighting. His career has also spanned seeing JeffCo go from a battleground to a solid red county. I think you’ll like it. 

The interview will be on the your podcast apps Wednesday.

From there we went to St. Charles County. Republican candidate Wendy Hausman invited us to tag along to her Pachyderm Club meeting in Lake St. Louis. 

Rep. Travis Fitzwater discussed why he ran for the senate, then he took questions about a range of issues. Actually that ain’t accurate he took a slew of questions, but they were all about schools in some form or another. 

After that I got to visit with Trudy Busch Valentine outside the early polling place at the Mermac campus of St. Louis Community College. 

Mrs. Busch is one of the nicest people to run for statewide office that I have ever met.  She remarked on how kind the people of Missouri have been to her before discussing her concern for women who are seeking treatments for ectopic pregnancies. 

She concluded with “However this turns out I wouldn’t have missed doing this for the world.”

I stuck my head into he door of the building where people were voting. There must have been a hundred people in line. 

From the traffic to the masks, to the lockdowns, to the lines for everything like voting you just feel so sorry for folks who have to live in those cities. It’s a hard ol’ life for em. 

After that I caught up with one of my favorite people in all of Missouri politics Rep. Jim Murphy. He was helping knock doors for Kenneth Abram who is running for the district just north of his. 

While there we had ANOTHER Doc Patterson sighting who had also come to knock doors for Mr. Abram. 

I stuck around the Social Club Grill there in South County after they left and visited with a few folks for a spell. You wouldn’t be surprised to see how much normal folks distain talking about politics. Don’t get me wrong there are some just dying to tell you all of their thoughts, but if I wanted to hear ramblings of the loud and angry I have Facebook for that. 

By the same token you might be surprised how happy those same quite normal folks are to give you a couple candid thoughts after you buy them a beer. 

Here in this very northern part of South County they are still democrats. At least they are trying pretty hard to still be democrats. The pretty consistent sentiment I got was that for the last several years they were voting for the folks they hated the most. They had came close to deciding that was the democrats, then the republicans pulled their right to work vote a few years ago. Then came the anti-police rhetoric, then came CRT, then came Cori Bush. There is only so much they are prepared to choke down to remain democrats, and that was all before inflation. 

One retired Teamster who was a Busch heavy drinker, bout like Mahoney, summed it up to me while I was drinking a Busch Light, bout like a life long republican with a weak handshake in South County would have been, “I had finally decided the democrats had pissed me off enough that I was gonna be a republican, then the repubclians tried to screw me with Right to Work. Well I guess we stuck it up their ass hard enough on that vote that I guess I’m about over it. I’ve just finally had to accept that democrats really don’t like old white guys like me. So Im gonna vote for the folks that do like me… for now. Either way I’m sure the republicans will find a way to piss me off again before long.” 

He also said some stuff about trans athletes I left out, but I assume you can pretty well guess what he said on that topic with out me spelling it out for you. 

It really is a battle out there of who do you hate the most. With a democrat who is struggling in the White House that all makes for a good tailwind in places like South County. 

I then caught up with the two Representatives and the one aspiring one, out knocking doors. As usual Jim put on a clinic on how well he knows his folks. He came to a door and pushed the button on the Ring Video Doorbell. When the little light came on he launched into his full pitch for Mr. Abram. He couldn’t have had any more Irish charm if it had been St. Paddy’s Day. 

Jim told me he has people still come up to him in the grocery store and play the video he made on their doorstep. It’s a great idea. The guy is just a natural among his folks. 

You have to figure that Rep. Walsh-Moore is the favorite here as the district goes all the way up to the city, but Mr. Abram is a very good recruit and in this environment it will be closer than it should, he could even win. Democrats in places like South County have to hope that republicans are pretty quick about finding a way to piss these folks off again or republicans are going to be knocking on the door of South City. 

In a tale of two counties I left South County for Kirkwood where Rep. Tracy McCreery is in a tighter than expected senate race against local doctor George Hruza. 

She told me she has knocked the entire district, and was going back to some neighborhoods to make sure they contacted everyone they could before election day. 

Hruza has ran a good campaign, a very good campaign, and has put in a good chunk of money. His attacks have been solid and a lot of them. Tracy is simply a very good candidate in a good district for democrats. In all honesty the republicans shouldn’t be competitive here, but again you have to swipe your card twice to fill up your truck and folks ain’t interested in macroeconomic lectures on why it ain’t Biden’s fault. 

You know actually I didn’t see many trucks in Kirkwood, but maybe you have to swipe your card twice to buy one of those Starbucks coffees. I honestly wouldn’t know. 

I stopped into Joey B’s there in Kirkwood. More than a couple folks there were willing to chat, and didn’t even need me to buy one of whatever fruity looking thing they were drinking in order to get them to. 

In Kirkwood those folks weren’t begrudgingly voting for anyone they were pretty happily gonna vote for democrats, like all of them. Even the guys were fired up about abortion. Im not even sure Rick Stream or Mike Gibbons could have won an election in this place. 

They were very engaged about voting and knew the candidates. In fact of the seven people I was chatting with five had already voted. 

There is some democratic enthusiasm Ive seen it, but I tend to reckon there are quite a few more folks in Missouri drinking Busch heavy in places like the Social Bar and Grill than there are drinking fruity Martinis at Joey B’s in Kirkwood. 

I guess we will find out Tuesday evening. 

Scott Faughn

Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.

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He goes on to say that “the price of ground beef is up 36%”, which goes along with the Missouri Farm Bureau’s claim that “Cost of July 4th Cookout 17% Higher Compared to Year Ago“. 

“In the Senate, I’ll end the wasteful spending and put more money back in your pocket,” Schmitt says, after noting that Missourians have to pay over $700 a month due to inflation he claims Biden has created.

Schmitt has been leading in recent polling after winning the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate back in August. He is running against the Democratic Nomination winner, Trudy Busch Valentine, who went unmentioned in this ad.

Schmitt has stacked up quite the endorsements for his run for Senate, the most previous being Missouri Farm Bureau. “Attorney General Schmitt has been a staunch ally of rural Missourians at every level of public service. We need strong leaders to fight on behalf of Missouri’s farmers and ranchers against an activist administration, and he has already proven he is not afraid to speak up and work for us.” said Missouri Farm Bureau president Garrett Hawkins.

The General election is set to take place on Tuesday, November 8.

Brady Hays

Brady Hays is a 2023 graduate of the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in History. He is currently attending the University of Missouri School of Law and is on pace to graduate with his JD in 2026. He has been working for the Missouri Times since early March 0f 2022.

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The bureau endorsed Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, who came as runner-up behind Schmitt on Aug. 2 in the Republican primary. Missouri Farm Bureau follows in the steps of Missouri Soybeans, who also endorsed Hartzler and have now endorsed Schmitt in the general election.

“Missouri has long been blessed with outstanding leaders, especially in the world of agriculture. None has been better or more consistent than Vicky Hartzler. We are proud to stand with the members of the Missouri Farm Bureau and vote for her to be our next U.S. Senator. We hope you will join us on August 2 and do the same,” Missouri Farm Bureau president Garrett Hawkins said in an opinion editorial for the Missouri Times on July 12.

With Hartzler falling well short of Schmitt, it’s no surprise to see the Farm Bureau endorse the GOP nominee. Especially as Schmitt has framed his Democrat opponent, Trudy Busch Valentine, as “wrong for farmers” in recent weeks. Schmitt used his first general election advertisement to almost exclusively attack Busch for supporting President Biden and his “socialist agenda” over Missouri farmers.

“Rep. Hartzler served agriculture well as a member of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture and she’s been a long-time grassroots leader in our organization. Earning our members’ endorsement in the primary,” Hawkins said in a statement. “Missourians were fortunate to have strong candidates to choose from in the primary election, and we look forward to Eric Schmitt bringing Missouri’s common sense values to Washington.”

This is far from the first time the bureau has spoken out in favor of Schmitt. The bureau backed Schmitt both when he was appointed as Attorney General in 2019 as well as when he ran his first campaign for the position in 2020.

“Attorney General Schmitt has been a staunch ally of rural Missourians at every level of public service,” Hawkins said in a press release. “We need strong leaders to fight on behalf of Missouri’s farmers and ranchers against an activist administration, and he has already proven he is not afraid to speak up and work for us.”

Featured Image courtesy of Eric Schmitt/Twitter

Matthew McFarland

I’m a journalist hailing from the Detroit area. I love to tell investigative stories with a focus on everyday people.

You can contact me by email at matthew@missouritimes.com

The post Farm Bureau endorses Schmitt for Senate appeared first on The Missouri Times.

and television ad since he won the Republican nomination for soon-to-retire Roy Blunt’s Senate seat Aug 2.

Schmitt beat out Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and former Gov. Eric Greitens in his primary bid, winning by 23 points.

His next opponent is Trudy Busch Valentine, daughter of St. Louis beer magnate August “Gussie” Anheuser Busch, who beat Marine veteran and former Pentagon staffer Lucas Kunce by five points for the Democratic nomination.

With the primaries done and less than three months to go before the general election, the time for election ads is upon us.

Schmitt’s new ad, titled “Wrong for Farmers,” was released this week during the Missouri State Fair, the largest gathering of members of the agricultural community in the state.

The ad depicts a dark screen, in which a narrator criticizes Busch Valentine’s support of President Joe Biden, as well some of President Biden’s recent legislation regarding energy policy, the environment and inflation.

The ad ends with the narrator claiming that Trudy Busch Valentine and Joe Biden are wrong for farmers and the state of Missouri. Schmitt himself does not appear in the ad, with the exception of his message of approval at the very end.

The ad also targets a demographic that has been reeling lately, the farmers of Missouri. A summer of drought has dominated the lives of many farmers in the state. Both crop and livestock have each taken a hit these past few months.

As of today, Schmitt has received an endorsement from the Missouri Soybean Association, a major agriculture group in the state.

Busch Valentine has yet to release an ad of her own regarding the general election.

The post Schmitt strikes first with general election campaign ad appeared first on The Missouri Times.

Scott Faughn

Scott Faughn is the publisher of The Missouri Times, owner of the Clayton Times in Clayton; SEMO Times in Poplar Bluff; and host of the only statewide political television show, This Week in Missouri Politics.

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