By Tanya K Metaksa
It’s only May 2021 but interest in the 2022 election is heating up, especially in the “Show Me” state.
On May 17, Mark McCloskey of St. Louis—the man who became an overnight poster boy for the Second Amendment—was on Fox’s Tucker Carlson show to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for US Senator from Missouri. Current Senator Roy Blount (R-MO) has already announced that he will not be running for re-election in 2022. This is not the first time that McCloskey has been a guest on Tucker Carlson.
Carlson covered the case of the McCloskeys, Mark and Patricia, who defended themselves and their home with firearms when an unruly mob of protestors broke down a gate and trespassed onto their private property in 2020. Thegunmag.com covered the incident and the subsequent legal battles in my columns here, here and here.
Following all the media coverage the St. Louis Circuit Attorney (in most jurisdictions that office is called District Attorney), Kimberly Gardner decided to prosecute the McCloskeys and sought an indictment by empaneling a grand jury last October. The McCloskeys were subsequently indicted on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with evidence. Gardner, however, never took any legal action against the trespassers that terrified and harassed the couple. The McCloskeys pled not guilty and two weeks later filed a motion to remove Gardner because she used their case “in targeted email solicitations for campaign contributions.”
Last December, Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II ruled that Gardner’s fund raising emails infringed upon the McCloskeys right to a fair trial and that she “initiated a criminal prosecution for political purposes.” Thus Gardner and her entire office were disqualified from prosecuting Mark McCloskey.
Earlier this year, Gardner filed an appeal with the Missouri Supreme Court, which upheld the decision to remove Gardner from the McCloskey case. On April 30, Circuit Court Judge David Mason scheduled a trial for the first week in November with a new prosecutor, retired US Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Richard Callahan. Upon his appointment Callahan said, “I’m going to start at the ground level and see what the facts are and where they take me.”
McCloskey joins at least five other Republicans, five Democrats and one Independent vying for Blount’s. One of whom is the current Missouri Governor, Republican Eric Greitens. Even though McCloskey is facing a November trial date, he has started campaigning with media hype and lots of emails through the Republican fund raising apparatus.
His email reads “When the BLM mob came to destroy my home – I stood my ground. When I was charged by the St. Louis County Attorney for exercising my constitutional right to bear arms – I fought back. You can count on me to never run, hide, or quit when things get heated. I will never, ever stop defending you.”
For gun owners across the USA the Missouri US Senate race has just become very hot and very, very interesting.
