Missouri GOP is working to remove candidate with ties to KKK who has been pictured performing Nazi salute at cross-burning

The Missouri Republican Party has taken steps to prevent a man with ties to the Ku Klux Klan from running for governor as the Republican Party.

Darrell Leon McClanahan III, of Milo, Missouri, declared his candidacy for governor this week in the Republican primary — one of eight Republicans to file for office.

McClanahan previously ran for an open Senate seat in Missouri last cycle. He received 0.2 percent of the vote in a contest that was ultimately won by current Senator Eric Schmitt.

On Thursday, the Missouri Republican Party denied McClanahan’s entry into the race, saying, “The Missouri Republican Party has been notified that Darrell Leon McClanahan III has filed for governor as a Republican, despite his ties to the Ku Klux Klan, which is fundamentally at odds with our party’s values. and platform.’

McClanahan has insisted to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he is ‘not a Nazi’ despite the photo

“We have begun the process to have Mr. McClanahan removed from the ballot as the Republican candidate,” they continued.

The statement also included a condemnation of hate groups and a proclamation that “our party upholds respect for all individuals, and we are committed to addressing decisively any challenge to these principles.”

In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League published an article with a photo of McClanahan with two men described as leaders of the Knights Party – the ‘Knights of the Ku Klux Klan’ is a modern offshoot of the KKK.

Another photo apparently shows McClanahan at a cross burning in 2019.

In the photo, McClanahan stands next to a person wearing white KKK garb and a pointed hat. Both men raise their right arms in what appears to be a Nazi salute.

McClanahan told the newspaper on Thursday St. Louis Postal Service that he is ‘not a Nazi’.

“I don’t believe in heil Hitler,” he said, claiming the photo is just “a bad photo of me.”

Regarding the photo of himself with the Knights’ leaders, McClanahan said, “That’s me. Yes that’s me.’

McClanahan sued the ADL for defamation last year in a case that was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri before being dismissed in December.

Although the Missouri GOP claims they unknowingly accepted his filing fee, McClanahan says they knew exactly who he was when he registered to run.

In his original petition to the court, McClanahan described himself as a “pro-white male, equestrian, politician, political prisoner activist committed to traditional Christian values.”

The lawsuit goes on to claim that McClanahan does not belong to the KKK. Although it later says that he was ‘given an honorary membership for one year’.

McClanahan tried to clarify to the Post-Dispatch that the membership referred to the League of the South — a self-described “Southern nationalist” group that advocates the “both cultural and political separation” of the former Confederate states.

The petition also appears to address the cross-burning statue, which in 2019 is being called a “private religious Christian identity cross-lighting ceremony.”

Former state Rep. Shamed Dogan, who was the only black Republican lawmaker in the state legislature during his term, highlighted the McClanahan issue to the state party on X.

“Hey @MissouriGOP “I just learned that the candidate first on our primary ballot for governor is a burning KKK member who ran for the U.S. Senate two years ago and openly admits his KKK membership and white supremacist beliefs,” he wrote , adding that the body should reject the wannabe file charges of a politician.

“Please tell me you’re going to… dismiss this racist loser’s filing charges?” he said.