An honorary member of the Ku Klux Klan can stay on the GOP primary ballot for Missouri governor, a judge ruled Friday.
Longshot candidate Darrell McClanahan III survived a legal challenge by the Missouri Republican Party to shunt him from the ballot, which was denied Friday by Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker. The petition had argued for McClanahan’s removal on the grounds that the GOP didn’t properly vet McClanahan before he filed his candidacy in February; Walker, in his decision, wrote that while the GOP was free to distance itself from McClanahan, the judge would not remove him from the ballot.
McClanahan’s lawyer, Dave Roland, said he believed the Missouri GOP’s request was doomed from the start.
