MOScout Daily Update: Conservatives Target House Seats - MO GOP Condemns KS YGOP Group Chat - Hough Speaks - Latest SOS Suit and more…

Conservatives Target House Seats

Press release: The Missouri 82 Alliance, a campaign sponsored by the Freedom Principle MO – Missouri First PAC, is dedicated to transforming Missouri’s political landscape by electing the next generation of conservative leaders to the state legislature. Today, the Alliance announces its first round of candidate endorsements for the August 2026 primaries, targeting over 20 Republican open seats to flip the balance toward true conservative representation.

Why It Matters

The Freedom Caucus works very closely with Freedom Principle. And despite the many victories that conservatives can point to (tax cut, IP reform), there’s a sense that the legislature still isn’t conservative enough.  “This is how conservatives are going to fix the Missouri House.”

The Candidates

·       House 3 – Jason Soseman – Jason is an entrepreneur and the current state GOP Committeeman for the 18th State Senate District.

·       House 5 – Justin Barnhart – Justin serves as the executive director for a local nonprofit and a pastor for his church.

·       House 57 – Matt Sergent – Matt is a small business owner of a heating and cooling company.

·       House 60 – Scott Spencer – Scott is a retired Fire Captain of the Jefferson City Fire Department and a former Jefferson City Councilman

·       House 118 – Amy DeClue – Amy is a registered nurse and serves as the chairman of the Franklin County Republican Central Committee.

·       House 129 – Will Worsham – Will is a lifelong resident of the district, a current municipal judge, and a former prosecutor.

·       House 160 – Chris Wright – Chris owns a construction business, was a candidate for governor in 2024, and is a former law enforcement officer and retired military.

·       House 161 – Thomas Ross – Thomas is a small business owner operating two independent businesses and has worked for the City of Joplin.

·       House 162 – Walter Hayes – Walter is currently an Alderman for Carl Junction and has served for six years as Mayor Pro Tem and as President of the Carl Junction Chamber of Commerce.

Curbside Pot Pickup

Press release: The Division of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) within the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has published a first draft of a proposed rule amendment to 19 CSR 100-1.180, establishing curbside pickup at dispensary facilities.

Latest Hatfield Suit

Mark Johnson filed suit against Secretary of State Denny Hoskins yesterday alleging that Hoskins missed deadlines in advancing Johnson’s initiative petitions.  It looks like Johnson’s IPs deal with changing how the state allocates delegates for the Electoral College. See the suit here.

Secretary Hoskins refuses to post the contents of his approval of the initiative petitions on the Secretary’s website; Secretary Hoskins refuses to prepare and transmit to the Attorney General ballot summary statements for the purportedly rejected measures; Secretary Hoskins refuses to certify official ballot titles for Relator’s initiative petitions.

·       Chuck Hatfield is Johnson’s attorney.

KS GOP Chat

A Politico article about an unbelievably gross group chat among Kansas Young Republicans was getting passed around.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”

·       MOGOP Chair Peter Kinder: “I call on all Republicans to repudiate the hateful language being reported on by a small group of Young Republicans. There is no place in our Missouri Republican Party, or elsewhere, for this type of language or behavior.”

Hough Speaks

Springfield News Leader reports on Sen. Lincoln Hough recounting his ouster as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee…

Hough said less than 20 minutes after the end of the special session to gerrymander Missouri's congressional map, state Sen. Cindy O'Laughlin, a Republican who holds the powerful position of Senate president pro tem, walked into his office, kicked other lawmakers out and said she wanted to talk.

"She sits down and says 'We — we're — tired of fighting with you' and I said Cindy, her name is Cindy O'Laughlin, she is actually a nice lady," he said of the Republican from Shelbina.

Hough said he asked "What have we been fighting about?"

"She said 'The majority of your committee last year did not want to fund education and you did it anyway,'" he said.

"And I looked her dead in the face and I said 'That is the third time in the three years that I have been chairman of this committee that the budget and every (one) of the 13 bills that have come out of my committee were voted out unanimously, which means every Republican in my committee and every Democrat in my committee voted for it because they believed in the priorities that we were moving forward."

"Take me out of this situation and the ramifications of having a chairmanship pulled after you don't vote with your caucus on a couple of bills that we had zero debate on," Hough said. "Do you think it's good policy to just walk out on the Senate floor, have no discussion whatsoever, and immediately vote on something? ... To me, that erodes the foundation of democracy."

Mayhew Amends Committee

Rep. Don Mayhew amended his candidate committee to say he was seeking the Senate 16 seat.  This was expected.  There are now 5 Republicans with active committees to replace termed Sen. Justin Brown: Reps. Bill Hardwick and Jeff Knight, Hannah Kelly, and Joe Steelman.

Lobbyist Registrations

John Idoux added ACT Education Corp.

Leah Kaufman added Shatterproof.

Steven Tilley, Thomas Robbins, Christopher Schoeman, and Alec Rosenblum added Boys and Girls Club of Greater St. Louis; and deleted Missouri Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs.

James Harris deleted State Armor Action.

$5K+ Contributions

House Republican Campaign Committee, Inc - $25,000 from Political Action Committee for Health – HEALTHPAC.

Access MO - $10,000 from Project 50 PAC MO.

Electrical Workers Voluntary Political Education & Legislative Funds – Missouri - $21,573 from  IBEW Local One.

Missouri Energy Development Association Political Action Committee - $50,000 from Ameren Missouri.

Birthdays

Happy birthdays to Chrissy Sommer, Lane Koch, and Dean Morgan.