‘Hypocrites’: 'Honorary’ KKK member running for Missouri governor trashes GOP comrades

In an interview Thursday with Raw Story, a Missouri gubernatorial candidate with alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan blasted the Missouri GOP for attempting to remove him from the ballot.

“The GOP knew exactly who I am,” Darrell Leon McClanahan III told Raw Story via text message after a brief phone interview. “They’re just mad my daughter drew number 22 making me number one on the ballot they’re a bunch of hypocrites.”

McClanahan’s lucky ballot position draw placed him at the top of the Republican candidate list for Missouri governor, prompting a state senator to urge the Missouri Republican Party to remove him from the ballot.

McClanahan’s “honorary” membership in the KKK and photos of him doing a Nazi salute next to a white robed person in front of a burning cross prompted the ballot backlash from fellow Republicans, the Riverfront Times reported.

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McClanahan told Raw Story that during his failed run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, Missouri GOP Chairman Nick Myers “vetted me and knew I was a Christian identist; and that I should just not say anything bad about the Jews.” In light of Missouri Republicans turning on him now, McClanahan said the state party is led by “a bunch of Anti-White hypocrites.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism identified McClanahan as a white supremacist. The organization also said McClanahan is an “adherent of the racist and antisemitic religious sect Christian Identity,” and he also attended events “organized by the Knights Party.”

Myers did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment, but Erica Choinka, a spokesperson for the Missouri GOP, shared a statement posted on the party’s X account.

“The Missouri Republican Party has been made aware that Darrell Leon McClanahan III filed for Governor as a Republican despite his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, which fundamentally contradicts our party's values and platform,” the statement said. “We have begun the process of having Mr. McClanahan removed from the ballot as a Republican candidate. We condemn any association with hate groups and are taking immediate action to rectify this situation. Our party upholds respect for all individuals, and we're dedicated to addressing any challenges to these principles decisively."

McClanahan denies he’s a hateful man.

“I hate no one I am not a member of the klu Klux Klan (sic) and I have never been,” said McClanahan, who told Raw Story he received death threats on Thursday.

In August, McClanahan sued the Anti-Defamation League for “money damages for the insult, embarrassment, humiliation, mental suffering, anguish, injury to his name, professional reputation, and loss of community trust caused by the ADL’s defamation," according to the lawsuit.

The Anti-Defamation League reported that the case was dismissed by a federal judge in December, but McClanahan claimed his case was still active and said “I believe the ADL targeted me because of my candidacy for political office and my christian identity.”

Jake Kurz, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League, confirmed Thursday that the lawsuit was dismissed but declined to comment on McClanahan’s candidacy, citing the organization's 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable status.

McClanahan photographed with GOP opponent

McClanahan posted a photo of himself with another Republican gubernatorial candidate, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, on X in March 2022 and Facebook this past January. McClanahan also shared the photo directly with Raw Story.

“When I met Prince lazy J Ashcroft at Vernon County Lincoln days, we discussed the 2020 riots and his exact words were, ‘The Blacks are a problem,’” McClanahan told Raw Story.

Jason Cabel Roe, a spokesperson for Ashcroft, denied that the secretary of state knew who McClanahan was when meeting him at the event in 2022.

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McClanahan “has no association with Secretary Ashcroft and we have no idea what he is talking about,” Roe told Raw Story via email. “He’s an embarrassment and should be removed from the ballot. The Secretary had no idea who he was when the picture was taken and as he takes hundreds of pictures with Missourians every year, no way of knowing every person he meets. Heck, he may have even taken a photo with a reporter from Raw Story.”

JoDonn Chaney, communications director for the Missouri Secretary of State, told Raw Story: “Secretary Ashcroft takes a picture with generally anybody that asked him to take a picture together,” but referred further questions about the photo to the campaign.

Ashcroft called on the Missouri GOP to investigate McClanahan, via X, formerly Twitter.

“The allegations against Darrell McClanahan are serious and the photos damning. Racism has no place in our party. The @MissouriGOP should immediately investigate them and, if confirmed, remove him from the ballot like they did Steve West two years ago!” Ashcroft wrote on X.

There are currently eight Republican, three Democratic and one independent candidates registered to run for Missouri governor, according to a Raw Story review of the Missouri Secretary of State’s unofficial candidate filing list.

The gubernatorial primary will be held Aug. 6. A conservative state on balance, the eventual Republican nominee is expected to win the Missouri governor’s office.

Missouri Democrats refused to accept a filing fee from state Rep. Sarah Unsicker, who was pictured on social media last year with a Holocaust denier, according to the Anti-Defamation League, AP reported.

Chaney, of the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, said there are three ways someone can be removed from a ballot.

“One, either they didn't file proper ethics forms with the Missouri Ethics Commission, and they could remove them,” Chaney said. “Two, the individual could withdraw themselves from the ballot, or three, it would take a court order to remove someone from the ballot.”