ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The Missouri Republican Party says it is working to remove a man off the ballot as a Republican candidate in the Governor's race due to alleged past ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
On Wednesday, former Missouri State Rep. Shamed Dogan (R- Ballwin) posted on his X, formerly known as Twitter account, that he discovered that among the Republican candidates who unofficially filed to be in the Missouri Governor's race was a man by the name of Darrell Leon McClanahan III, who has alleged ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
McClanahan has previously attempted to run for office in 2022, where he attempted to run for retired Sen. Roy Blunt's seat in the U.S. Senate. McClanahan received 1,139 votes in the state's 2022 Republican Primary Election, falling well short of Blunt's eventual successor Eric Schmitt, who received nearly 300,000 votes.
The Anti-Defamation League posted an article in August 2022 following the primary election, where the league's Center on Extremism division says they have been monitoring McClanahan for some time, with pictures showing McClanahan alongside various white supremacist and Christian identity groups, including a picture with him alongside Knights Party, an Arkansas-based Christian Identity Ku Klux Klan group leaders Thomas and Jason Robb.
McClanahan has attended Church of Israel, a Missouri based Christian Identity church led by Dan Gayman and posted an image of his membership card to the League of the South, a white supremacist group advocating for southern secession and an independent, white-dominated South in 2017 according to the ADL.
Following Dogan's post, the Missouri Republican Party released a statement on their party's account on X Thursday saying the party is working to have McClanahan remove 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", the Party says in a statement on it's X, account.
McClanahan released a statement on his campaign account on X, claiming that the GOP 'knew exactly who he was' and he has received several death threats from the tweets.
"Missouri GOP knew exactly who I am. Chairman (Nick) Myers told me when I signed up for Senate, paying my $500 fee, saying he had vetted me and knew I was a Christian identist; and that 'I should just not say anything bad about the Jews.'" said McClanahan. "When I met Prince lazy (Jay) Ashcroft at Vernon County Lincoln days, we discussed the 2020 riots and his exact words were, 'The Blacks are a problem.'
"Again, I will state the GOP knew exactly who I am. What a bunch of Anti-White hypocrites."