Two of the eight Republican candidates for Missouri Secretary of State launched TV campaign ads this week, hoping to break away from pack in the final two weeks before the Aug. 6 primary.
Jamie Corley, a longtime Republican political operative from St. Louis, was first on the air, launching ads in three markets on Monday.
Ads for Dean Plocher, the speaker of the Missouri House, hit the airwaves Tuesday.
Plocher — who leads the field of secretary of state hopefuls in fundraising with more than $1.2 million between his campaign and his PAC — has thrown more than $285,000 towards TV ads at stations across the state in the run up to the primary, records show.
His campaign did not respond to a request for comment on ad spending.
Corley, who has about $300,000 invested in her campaign, has spent about $23,300 on ads running this week across the state’s largest metro areas. She said in an interview that her campaign also spent $80,000 on digital ads to run on streaming platforms, and that she intends to buy more TV air time next week.
The other six candidates — state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, social media personality Valentina Gomez, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller, state Sen. Denny Hoskins, state Rep. Adam Schwadron and Judge Mike Carter — have not run any TV ads this cycle thus far.
Despite being out-fundraised by Plocher, Corley said beating him to getting the first ads on air shows she’s serious about winning. She added her campaign plans to purchase more next week.
“Dean does have more money than anybody else in the race,” Corley said.” However, I don’t know if he is going to spend all of it. Maybe he’s saving some for legal fees. Maybe he’s spending some for a future campaign. I can tell you that my campaign will be zeroed out.”
Corley is referencing a whistleblower lawsuit against Plocher and his chief of staff, Rod Jetton, in Cole Circuit Court alleging both men harassed and intimidated nonpartisan legislative staff.
The suit stems from a series of scandals that plagued Plocher’s final year as speaker, ranging from an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a lucrative software contract and revelations he filed false expense reports for travel already paid for by his campaign.
Plocher’s campaign ad doesn’t mention his woes, instead focusing on his legislative record, proclaiming his support for voter ID, citizen-only voting and sending National Guard troops to the border.
“I’m Dean Plocher,” he says in the ad. “As secretary of state, I’ll stand with President Trump to secure our elections and keep Missouri conservative.”
But while Plocher scandals haven’t found their way into TV ads, the PAC supporting Schwadron’s campaign spent $44,000 in the last month on fliers inserted in local newspapers in the St. Louis area highlighting the litany of alleged wrongdoing and declaring “evil triumphs when good men do nothing.”
Schwadron was among the first Republicans to call for Plocher to resign last year, before Plocher joined the secretary of state primary. In an interview with The Independent, Schwadron said he’s seen nothing in the intervening months to change his mind.
“He should resign,” he said earlier this month. “He does not deserve to be in that office.”
Abortion politics
Corley is also hoping to stand out as the only major Republican candidate running for statewide office to publicly support abortion access. Late last year she launched a campaign seeking to legalize abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and add exemptions in the law for fetal abnormalities and for victims of rape or incest.
“The total abortion ban goes too far, and I think it’s going to decimate the maternal health care system,” Corley said Monday.
In her campaigning, Corley has emphasized that she and former president and current GOP nominee Donald Trump are aligned on abortion. At the Republican National Convention earlier this month, delegates adopted a new party platform which fell in line with Trump’s stance that abortion should be left up to each state to decide. The party platform previously supported national restrictions on abortion.
Corley pointed to this change in RNC messaging as one of a few reasons why she will soon be doubling down on her messaging around reproductive rights.
Later this week, Corley said she will launch a text message campaign emphasizing her stance to 50,000 Missourians.
“We have to protect birth control. We have to protect IVF, and we’re not penalizing women for getting healthcare,” Corley said, adding that she’s optimistic messaging around IVF can help get more suburban Republican women out to the polls. Earlier this year, Missouri lawmakers failed to pass legislation guaranteeing protections to the procedure, though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said it remains a priority.
While her digital campaign focuses more heavily on reproductive rights, Corley’s TV ad makes no mention of abortion, instead leaning into more mainstream conservative talking points.
“I believe in building a stronger, safer state for all of us,” she says in the video. “That starts with secure elections, cultivating a pro-business economy and having the backs of our law enforcement.”
