- [Narrator] The Missouri Governor's office is up for grabs.

With term limits ushering incumbent Republican Mike Parson toward the exits, which direction will the GOP go from here?

Three top candidates are battling in the polls.

The winner of the August 6th primary could go on to hold the highest office in the state.

Tonight, the candidates debate.

From the "5 on Your Side" studios in St. Louis, this is the Missouri GOP Governor's Race Debate.

Welcome to the 2024 Republican Primary Debate in the race for governor, I'm Mark Maxwell, alongside moderators Carol Daniel from Nine PBS and Caitlin Knute from KSHB in Kansas City.

- Over the next hour, you're going to hear from some of the Republican candidates running for governor.

Each candidate will have 60 seconds to make an opening statement and 90 seconds for closing statements at the end.

- At the moderator's discretion, we may extend an additional 60 seconds for rebuttals or clarifications.

We will not allow any interruptions during the candidate's answers.

So, let's meet the candidates who are here with us tonight.

Jay Ashcroft, who is currently serving as Missouri's Secretary of State and Bill Eigel, a state senator from St. Charles County.

Welcome to you both.

- Three candidates qualified to appear on stage tonight.

Regrettably, only two showed up.

For the sake of transparency, Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe's campaign did engage in several conversations with us as we planned this event.

At no point did they object to the timing or ask us to reschedule on a different date, so we held this open podium out in good faith on the chance he might reconsider and rearrange his schedule.

- Now, gentlemen, obviously we understand that each of you hold proper titles in your current roles as elected officials, but tonight you're candidates running for the same job, so we'll be addressing you by your last names, Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Eigel.

- And because you're running for a job, we're gonna treat this like a job interview.

We'll ask hard questions about your record and challenge your positions so voters at home can evaluate how well you perform under pressure.

Candidates, you have agreed to our rules.

We will ask and insist that you adhere to them.

- [Carol] Well, we're going to start with the candidates who will each have 60 seconds to deliver their opening statements.

So we will begin with Mr. Eigel.

- Thank you.

Well, good evening everybody.

I'm State Senator Bill Eigel.

I'm a military veteran and small business owner, and I'm running on a platform for Missouri that is basically going to accomplish four things for the great state of Missouri.

One, we are going to arrest and deport every single the one of the more than 70,000 illegal immigrants that are estimated to be in the state of Missouri right now.

I support Donald Trump's plan of deporting every illegal in the country.

We're gonna make that happen here in Missouri.

Two, we're gonna eliminate personal property tax in this state because you shouldn't have to pay rent to government every December 1st for the crime of owning a car.

Three, we're gonna make sure that no foreign country can buy Missouri farmland, and we're gonna make sure we get every single square inch of Missouri that we've lost to foreign ownership back.

Four, we're gonna protect our families.

We're gonna protect our families from the crime getting out of control in St. Louis.

The nonsense of the pornography and the other, the pornography and the information that's in our schools right now, we're gonna make sure that that doesn't happen, that doesn't get to our children.

We're gonna protect Missourians.

- [Carol] Mr. Ashcroft, your opening statement, please.

- Well, thank you very much.

Thank you for putting on this debate for the people of the state.

As Secretary of State, I led Missouri's election rating from the Heritage Foundation from being 11th in the country to being in the top three.

I led the fight last year to stop our farm and other properties from being sold to foreign entities.

I've protected children in libraries from inappropriate material, and have worked hard to make sure that the people's money was returned to them and we took less of it as a government.

As governor, I wanna make sure that parents are in charge of education.

Mom and dad know best.

I want you to control the money, control the values, and the education for your children.

Right now, fewer than 25% of Missouri eighth graders are proficient in math and reading.

That's deplorable.

Number two, I wanna put an emphasis on public safety.

No Missourian should have to go to sleep at night scared in their own home.

And number three, it's time we cut government.

I've put forth a plan to get rid of Missouri's personal income tax, eight and a half billion dollars to return to the people of this state.

It's time we cut subsidizing people that don't wanna work and hurting people that do work.

- Thank you both.

Mr. Eigel, first to you.

You're running an ad that promises to quote, "Round up every single illegal immigrant in Missouri" and quote, "get them out of here."

As you know, there are many different types of undocumented immigrants, some who came here as children, others who are currently working jobs and paying taxes while awaiting a court date.

Others still who have lived here for decades long enough to become naturalized citizens.

Some migrants may have even driven freely across state lines in Missouri on a bus, say, from Texas to Chicago, completely under the state's radar.

So how exactly would you propose expanding police powers broad enough to identify and locate these people to quote "round them up?"

- Well, first of all, we're gonna declare an invasion.

That's what this is.

It's been going on since Joe Biden opened up the border back in 2021.

We're gonna declare an invasion under Article IV of the Missouri Constitution, and that is gonna grant the authority to our highway patrol, our National Guard, and every one of the sheriffs in every county of the state to arrest and detain and deport individuals who are here under unlawful immigration status.

So, I think what we've been lacking is real leadership on this issue.

While this problem has continued to get worse, we haven't seen any action coming from our statewide leaders.

That's all gonna change in January.

And the frustrating thing for me is that we don't have to wait until January.

Mike Kehoe and Mike Parson could take care of this and address this issue right now.

But Mike Kehoe, who's not only doing nothing as the Lieutenant Governor of this state, is afraid to come onto this stage because he opposes deporting the illegal.

He has embraced the idea of amnesty in the state of Missouri.

He opposes Donald J. Trump's plan to deport every illegal immigrant, not just in Missouri, but around the country.

- Mr. Ashcroft, your opponent here tonight, Mr. Eigel, just published a campaign video showing him next to Hispanic man who speaks Spanish and translates his threats to quote, "throw undocumented migrants into jail and end handouts."

When Democratic Minority Leader Crystal Quade, also running for governor, called that imagery, quote, "racist bigotry and bad for business," Eigel's campaign took those reviews and promoted them widely.

Do you think his ad or that reaction was appropriate?

- Well, what I think is appropriate is to have a governor that will protect this state, that will put Missourians first.

And right now, our federal government is not doing that.

I'm proud to be the first individual running for governor to call for us to send troops to the border to help Governor Abbott.

I'm proud to have been the first person to say that if we wanna stop the problem with illegal immigrants in this state, we need to quit subsidizing, which unfortunately our legislature has done for years.

I've never been in favor of that, and I'm not in favor of that right now.

I'm proud to have supported the police officers and put out a plan for public safety that will make sure that our police can help when they apprehend criminal illegal aliens to make sure that they're turned over to the federal government to be deported.

We have a problem, catch and release doesn't work, and the state has to step in because the federal government is not doing their job.

- Mr. Eigel, Arizona tried to enforce its own immigration laws in 2010 and the Supreme Court said states cannot do that.

The federal government enforces immigration law.

There's the Supremacy Clause, the Commerce Clause.

You may know that Missouri doesn't have an ICE detention center.

If you've somehow persuaded law enforcement or state troopers or militia to carry out these unconstitutional deportation orders, where would you put all these people?

And if they've broken no Missouri law, what jail would hold them?

What court would allow it?

- Well, first of all, they are breaking the law by being here.

And I don't know what the Supreme Court or the federal government thinks they're gonna say that says that we don't have the right to defend the sovereignty here in the state of Missouri.

We are going to round up and arrest every single illegal immigrant that we can get our hands on, and we're gonna get 'em the hell outta here.

I have been very clear about this, and even after the answer from my opponent here tonight, I seem to be the only one that's ready to embrace Donald Trump's vision of deporting every illegal immigrant in America.

We're gonna do that here in Missouri.

I happen to think that Donald Trump's gonna be the president.

I think he's gonna be a partner in that.

But regardless of who's up there telling us what they think we ought to be doing here in the state of Missouri, we're gonna defend our sovereignty.

And that means being tough on those that have come here under false immigration purposes and are breaking the law.

- Mr. Ashcroft, he referred to you there.

I wanna give you a rebuttal, but I wanna ask you to answer that question about the Commerce Clause and free flow of traffic across state lines.

How would a state even go about detecting or identifying which people were legal citizens in Missouri in the first place?

- Well, the first thing we need to understand is that the United States Constitution, not the Missouri State Constitution, requires that the federal government protect states from invasion.

When the federal government is violating the Constitution and their oath to the states, then states have the right to actively participate in protecting their citizens.

We've seen that happen in Texas, Missouri needs to do the same thing.

And I'm looking forward to President Donald J. Trump being president.

We didn't have this trouble at the border when he was president, and we will work with him to make sure that the people of this state are free from these lawbreakers.

- And a new question to you, Mr. Ashcroft.

You recently said the only way to ensure that illegal immigrants don't vote in Missouri elections is to require proof of citizenship.

Let's dig into that.

Federal law already forbids non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

The threat of deportation hangs over their heads if they do.

In order to register or to vote in Missouri, you need a driver's license, a passport, or a military ID.

As you know, military law, Missouri law rather, does not allow undocumented immigrants who are here illegally to even get a driver's license.

So how exactly do you think undocumented immigrants who are here illegally could obtain or submit a ballot without detection?

And if they did, wouldn't that be a failure of your office?

- Well, first of all, you have some inconsistencies that you cite there.

Who's allowed to vote, except for the Constitutional amendment, is driven by states and federal elections.

Article one, section one with regard to the House of Representatives and the 17th Amendment gives authority over who's allowed to vote to state.

And in the amendment it says whoever's allowed to vote for the largest legislative body of the state.

Secondly, the federal government has a federal registration form that unfortunately our legislature has bound me to accept and they have refused to reject that form.

And the federal government has refused to require proof of citizenship for people that use that form.

There is a case that I've been supporting coming, it was called Brnovich out of Arizona, that would require proof of citizenship.

But what I've been asking the legislature to do for years is to give me the authority to enforce and make sure that non-citizens aren't voting.

Just a checkbox isn't enough.

The first thing they did when they came to our country was break the law.

We need to make sure they prove their citizenship before they're allowed to vote.

- [Mark] I'm gonna ask for a quick clarification there because I didn't hear a direct answer.

How exactly would someone obtain a ballot and have you seen evidence of that occurring?

- People could register to vote using the federal form because the United States government and the EAC refuses to allow proof of citizenship requirements on federal registration forms.

That comes from Inter Tribal Council versus Arizona in 2013.

So that's how it can happen.

We have had illegal immigrants that were registered to vote that we were able to move off of the roles.

That's why we should require proof of citizenship to register and to vote.

But I'm not legally allowed to do that until the legislature gets off their behind and allows it.

- Mr. Eigel, I wanna ask you about a case that's certainly been making headlines in Kansas City for years now.

In 2019, as you know, Kansas City Police detective Eric DeValkenaere entered a private property of Cameron Lamb.

Now, the officer shot and killed Lamb within nine seconds of driving up to the house.

He said he believed Lamb had a gun at the time.

But in 2021, a court convicted the former officer of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

Ultimately, that judge found that he didn't have a search warrant to enter the property.

DeValkenaere given three and six year prison sentences.

Now, appellate courts upheld those convictions on appeal and the Supreme Court even refused to hear an appeal.

We know his family has been asking Governor Mike Parson to let him out, noting his two decades of service to Kansas City, noting the numerous awards that he won serving as an officer.

You've said you would grant him early release.

How do you balance that with the judgment of the courts and any concerns about the message you could potentially send to the Black community?

- Well, I tell you the, I've looked into this case and the only thing that Officer DeValkenaere is guilty of is protecting his partner when a suspect drew a weapon on him.

So, I want the family who I'm sure is listening here tonight to know that in my first week in office I'm gonna back the blue by actually pardoning Eric DeValkenaere and we're gonna get him back home with his family.

But I wanna go back to the question, the previous question that we had concerning elections and making sure illegals are not voting in our elections.

I wanna be real clear about this.

I'm not gonna go to the legislature looking for another law to be passed.

I'm gonna ensure that there's not a single illegal voting in the state of Missouri by deporting every illegal that's in the state of Missouri right now.

They're not gonna have the chance to register or vote in Missouri because we're gonna get them the heck out of here.

- Mr. Eigel, thank you.

I do wanna go back to the second part of my question though, just to make sure we do answer that.

Any concerns as governor if elected you would be representing all of Missouri?

Any concerns about how that decision to pardon the former detective would impact the Black community?

- Well, I don't know.

I'm not aware of any part of the state of Missouri that doesn't wanna back police officers to do their job.

So I think that the results of this this case are tragic, but what we had here was an officer who was responding to aggressive behavior and investigated and did the right thing.

We need to get him back home with his family.

- [Caitlin] Mr. Ashcroft, a police question for you now.

You're campaigning on a pledge to hire 1,000 more police officers for right here in St. Louis.

That's roughly double- - Well, across the state.

- [Caitlin] What the city has now, I believe.

So, two part question.

Assuming that you could find enough officers, enough new recruits, which is a problem we've been seeing in Kansas City, how would you pay for those salaries?

The city or the state, would they take that burden on?

And if courts have already said the state cannot mandate how much Kansas City spends on its police budget, why should voters believe a governor would have that kind of power over St. Louis?

- Well, first of all, we already have open positions across the state, so there is money allocated for those.

Secondly, the people of this state overwhelmingly voted in 2022 to allow the state to require Kansas City to spend at least 25% of their general revenue on officers.

Unfortunately, our court decided that they knew better than the people of this state and overruled what the people of this state said.

I will support officers.

I will make Missouri the place that officers around the country want to come to work.

Obviously, we can't get a thousand new ones trained in that first year, but we can bring people from other blue states.

I should step back.

It's unfortunate that my opponent does not wanna require proof of citizenship for people to register to vote because it's not just illegal aliens that could be here in this state.

We can have citizens of other countries that are here legally.

They should not be able to vote.

And I would really hope, as a Republican, he would agree that we should require proof of citizenship for anyone that wants to vote regardless of whether or not they're legally or illegally here.

- Now, technically that was a little off topic of the question, but I do want to give you a chance, Mr. Eigel to respond, to offer a rebuttal to that.

- Well, I don't know if it's a rebuttal.

We're absolutely gonna make sure that only Missouri residents.

All I'm being very clear on is that we're not gonna have to worry about illegals voting in our elections because I'm the candidate that if elected governor of this state is gonna deport every single one of 'em.

I don't know.

I think that I'm very frustrated that Mike Kehoe's not here tonight to explain why he's actually in support of amnesty, because he's not for deportation.

He said that my plan to deport the illegals is foolish, is impractical.

And I just think that being against the policy that was set by President Donald J. Trump himself is surprising from a Republican candidate.

But we've always known Mike to be a rhino.

- He didn't answer that.

He never wants, you know, it doesn't just have to be a Missouri resident.

You should have to be a citizen of the United States.

We have people that are residents of Missouri that are citizens of other countries.

They should not be voting in our elections.

And I would hope that the senator would agree that non-citizens should not be voting in our elections.

Is that a hard question?

- No, it's very simple.

I'm gonna go ahead and say yes, only- - Thank you.

- Only United States citizens.

And that's what we were fighting out on the Senate floor this year.

We actually passed a bill that's gonna put that very question in front of the people of this state.

So of course that's the case.

- Uh, no, you didn't.

- But- - And gentlemen, I hate to interrupt.

- It doesn't require proof of citizenship.

- We've, unfortunately, we've already done with our time the initial answering the question and the rebuttal.

And you will have time to address these concerns in your closing statements as well.

Mr. Eigel, both of you have spoken about a desire to address crime and to keep your constituents safe.

Let's talk about that mass shooting that happened back in February at the Chief's victory rally.

It killed one woman, a mother, a pillar of the community, hurt more than 20 others.

Missouri gun laws allow concealed carry without a permit, and the six shooters involved that day could potentially use stand your ground laws in Missouri to dodge those charges.

The school shooter at CVPA in St. Louis too, also known to authority.

And his mother had begged police to address her concerns about mental health issues there.

But they could not, because Missouri has no red flag laws.

So polls do show red flag laws and mental health background checks are widely popular across party lines.

Since so many voters and police even support some of these ideas, is there any scenario where you would consider adopting any red flag laws?

- We're not gonna use these tragedies that are happening in our city to justify government going after the guns of our citizens.

It's just not gonna happen.

I actually sponsored the bill in the Missouri Senate that would've outlawed these red flag databases because I think that's just an attempt by leftist government to go after guns of law abiding citizens.

We're just not gonna let that happen.

And I'm, you know, I think there's a reason that we're continuing to see these tragedies occur in our urban areas that have soft on crime policies.

Our urban areas that are teaching their citizens and pushing to their citizens that life doesn't matter.

There's a reason that the same access to firearms in suburban areas and rural areas doesn't seem the same kind of results of violent crime.

And it's because we have leaders in St. Louis City and Kansas City that don't wanna put bad guys in jail.

So we are gonna go after criminal activity.

Where there's bad guys, the state and the local leaders are gonna be expected to be involved.

That's why I've called for tripling the highway patrol presence on the highways leaning to and into and out of the cities where the crime is happening the most.

- And a quick point of clarification.

The day of that rally, we had 800 law enforcement officers there.

So even with that many law enforcement officers present that tragic shooting still occurred.

We have heard from some law enforcement agencies who have said they would advocate for some red flag laws.

And you've said you back the blue.

So if you hear from law enforcement members who say we need this, is there any chance of changing your position?

- Well, I've talked to a lot of law enforcement members myself, and I'm here to back the Second Amendment.

We're gonna protect the rights of our citizens, that's the proper role of government, and we're not gonna use these tragedies as a way to let government in to come in and grab our guns.

- Mr. Eigel, St. Louis police were recently able to disarm a man who had two guns.

He was on the top of a parking garage.

People were celebrating downtown during Independence Day.

He was already wanted for a shooting in Illinois, you may know.

The only reason they were able to disarm the man is because of a local ordinance that requires a concealed carry permit to carry guns in the open.

Without that ordinance, under current law police say that they would have had to wait until after the shooter actually opened fire to detain him or disarm him.

If police, again, themselves are asking for more tools to keep the public safe from gun violence, would you commit to law enforcement to help them in that?

- So I wanna make real clear, because it feels like the media often tries to drive a narrative that the reason we have violence in our cities has to do with guns and the materials and the tools that criminals are using to commit these crimes.

And that's not the case.

Criminals are committing crimes.

We need to empower the police to go after them and put them in jail.

I'm gonna support, I'm gonna commit to law enforcement right now that I'm gonna have their back by providing the resources.

If the mayor of the City of St. Louis or the mayor of Kansas City doesn't want to provide and support those officers, we're gonna get behind them and make sure they have the tools to do the job that we desperately need them to do, particularly in the areas that are being hit the most by criminal activity.

- And I apologize, not a narrative that I'm spinning, but that's what police were actually saying.

So I wanna be clear that I'm not spinning or trying to create any narrative for you tonight, sir.

But a follow up to that, it is law enforcement asking, as you said, resources.

They're asking for that as a resource here in the city of St. Louis.

They are asking for that as a tool.

- I appreciate the statement there, but the reality is, in five minutes of debate, I've been asked more by members of the media how we're gonna grab guns than I have by actual law enforcement individuals across the state of Missouri in the past nine months of campaigning.

I don't think that the law enforcement is looking for us to infringe the rights of our citizens.

I think that's a leftist media-driven narrative that I'm not gonna buy into.

I'm gonna be the protector of rights.

We're not gonna let anybody come in and grab the guns of law abiding citizens, whether it's overarching government or the federal government.

We're gonna protect our citizens.

- Let me turn to you, Mr. Ashcroft.

The St. Louis Police Association is endorsing Mr. Kehoe, but earlier this year the Ethical Society of Police, the group that primarily represents Black officers, did endorse you.

And in a statement the organization said it was because you are committed to bringing their voice to the table.

So a two part question here for you, sir.

One, can you describe from your sense, what are the unique needs of Black police officers?

And then secondly, the St. Louis Board of Alderman passed a ban on open carry for those 18 and under and police are actually praising it.

They say it's having a positive effect.

Could you give a message to St. Louis police officers who say they are pleased to see fewer juveniles in this case, we're not talking about adults, but juveniles, in St. Louis openly carrying weapons.

- Well, my message to the police is the same message that I gave to the Ethical Society of Police Officers is that I will have their back.

We will make sure that they're resourced.

We'll make sure that the state takes back control of the City of St. Louis Police Department so cops don't have to go to their district and realize there's not a car that works.

Or when they have to chase someone down, they have to roll down the window and open the door from the outside 'cause the interior door handle doesn't work.

We will work to make sure that we have 1,000 new officers across the state in the first year.

We will work to make sure that if there is a prosecutor with a vendetta, officers get a fair shake and they can have a change of venue, maybe to Cole County, so we never see what happened in Kansas City earlier with an individual that, as far as I can tell, all he did was follow his training and now he's in jail for six years.

And lemme just go back to red flag laws 'cause you never seem to ask me about that question.

We should never take away someone's constitutional right unless they're adjudicated guilty in a court of law with due process for a felony.

The right to bear arms is there for a reason.

It protects all rights.

- I do wanna ask a a follow up about the statement that the Ethical Society said they are endorsing you because you are bringing their voice to the table.

What is their voice?

What is it that they, that you are going to - Support?

- Look.

They have been defunded.

When the state controlled the police in St. Louis, there were two facilities for repairing vehicles.

When the state moved out, there was just one.

And then all the city personnel vehicles went through instead of police vehicles.

They don't have the budget, they don't have the legal support, they don't know that when they do the right thing, the politicians will have their back.

That will change.

- Mr. Eigel, you've targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, in academia.

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Black mothers are three times more likely to die in the 12 months after giving birth than their counterparts who happen to be white.

DEI initiatives in medical schools do explore why that is happening, the systemic inequities, and try to examine ways to prevent these tragic deaths.

When you target DEI in education, are you also saying that you would prohibit medical school students and doctors therefore, from exploring this tragic issue and trying to determine how to stop these tragic deaths?

- Well, that's not my understanding of DEI at all.

I see DER, CRT, all of these woke liberal agendas as different ways to be an attack on American families and a way to try to get our children, to get our communities to view everything through a racial lens.

I don't think that that moves our state or our country forward.

So I've actually made a commitment that on my first day as governor, I'm gonna fire every DEI position across state government and every public education institution, every higher education institution.

We're gonna make sure that what we're doing in government is not being tainted by the idea that we should judge people on the color of their skin.

I'm unfortunately think that that's exactly what DEI does.

We're gonna put a stop to it.

- When you look at medical school education and you hear that they are studying, for instance, men and prostate cancer.

They're studying why Black women die or are diagnosed later with breast cancer.

Those are the result of DEI initiatives.

Are you telling us that you do not support specifically looking at demographics and medical results?

- I'm telling you, I don't support DEI positions in government.

I'm also telling you that's, I think we should point out that the Chancellor Mun Choi of the University of Missouri just came out with a statement yesterday that they're gonna be actually of their own volition removing most of these DEI positions in the Mizzou system.

So I think that's a good step forward.

We're gonna take it a little bit further when I'm the governor of this state.

- Mr. Ashcroft, would you like to respond to that topic?

- Well, one thing I'd say is the governor can't just with a stroke of a pen or by decree fire every DEI individual in the state.

But what he can do is he can withhold funding for that.

And I will do that because I think it's important that we make sure that we look at people as to the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

- Mr. Ashcroft, back to you again with a full question here.

Your campaign materials describe yourself as an engineer to voters.

We now know it was a donor to Mike Kehoe's campaign who was the professional engineer who filed that original complaint against you with the state.

State records do show you were an engineer intern years ago and never licensed as a professional engineer.

In your complaints to the media you've brushed these complaints off rather as the swamp attacking you.

And you've said that plenty of people with a job title engineer don't have a state license.

That's true, we have some in TV stations.

But my question to you is a different one.

How do the skills you may have learned on an assembly line in the 1990s translate at all to the job of governor?

Why should voters care what job you held right outta college?

- Well, I think it's about having the ability and the training to logically construct and deconstruct arguments.

Not to vote or approve things just because of who brought them forth or the color of their skin or whether or not your political party is pushing it.

But to actually look at the numbers, to look at the process and say, what will the outcome of doing this be for the people of this state?

Will it increase their ability to make their own decision however they want more often?

Will it increase the opportunity for people to be the best they can be?

Or will increase the burden of the state on them?

You know, we have so much redundancy and waste in our state because we don't have people that go in there and look at how processes should work that understand that it doesn't matter what you put in, if your process is set up a certain way, that's the outcome you will get.

And we need an engineer that understands process, that understands how to solve problems, how to think outside of the box, and lead the people to do better than they even realize.

That's not governance, that's leadership and the people of Missouri deserve real leadership.

- A quick follow up for point of clarification.

In previous remarks you said you don't need a license from the state to call yourself an engineer.

I wanna make sure voters at home understand what you meant by that.

Are you suggesting you would do anything to relax the strict safety regulations in place now that require engineers, professional engineers, to obtain that license before building a bridge or a skyscraper?

- Look, I think there's some licensure that needs to remain.

That is good public policy.

But I also think that our government has run amuck and the idea that people would be attacked with multiple degrees in engineering from ABET-accredited disciplines that had worked as engineers in the defense industry and that were licensed by the state to teach engineering and engineering technology that tells you there's a problem.

This is the law fair we've seen at the federal government with President Trump.

And frankly, I think it's an honor that they would treat me the same way.

- Mr. Eigel, you've said that Mr. Kehoe is quote, "actually a democrat."

But your campaign filing shows significant support from trial lawyers.

Across the river in Illinois, trial lawyers almost exclusively back Democrats.

What are they getting in you?

- Well, they're getting a defender of rights.

And by the way, if you look at my, if you're really studying those MEC reports, my MEC reports are filled with over 100,000 individual donors from all over Missouri, all over the country that are donating five, 10, $15 at a time.

My average donation is actually less than 30 bucks.

That's a lot different than Mike Kehoe, who's getting big checks from the special interest down in Jefferson City at a clip of more than $10,000 per donation.

And the reason that he's getting those big checks is because the special interest in Jefferson City love him.

He's been compromising away his conservative promises for more than a generation down in Jefferson City.

He's one of the most establishment names that we have.

He supported the largest gas tax increase in the state history.

He supported.

He has opposed my plan to deport and detain illegals in this state.

He has actually voted to allow China and other countries to purchase the land in the state of Missouri.

And after all of that, he doesn't have the courage to stand in front of the cameras here and answer a few tough questions.

I don't think he deserves a single vote from a single Republican in a single county of this state.

We're gonna have some change down in Jefferson City.

- [Mark] Mr. Ashcroft, would you like to chime in on those campaign contributions?

- Yeah, well I think it's really interesting that my colleague here calls Lieutenant Governor Kehoe a Democrat when he voted the same way as he did 89.2% of the time .

They have both voted for massive increases in the gas tax.

They've both been against the initiative petition reform.

They've both voted to allow foreign entities to buy land in our state.

And I would not be proud of all the small dollar donations I got when it turns out that they were from scamming Trump donors who thought they were donating to President Trump, when in fact it was going to Senator Eigel.

And in fact, President Trump had to send him a cease and desist letter because of what he was doing to the MAGA movement.

- Mr. Eigel, I gotta give you a rebuttal there.

- Well, that was a lot of lies in one minute, Jay.

I mean, that was pretty amazing.

- Point 'em out.

- I have never voted for a tax increase in my life.

I have one of the most conservative voting records of any state senator to serve in the Missouri Senate in modern history.

I have been leading the charge to protect our land from being bought out from foreign countries.

I'm the only candidate- - Did you vote for it last year?

- I'm the only candidate- - Did you vote for it last year?

- No, I didn't.

In fact, we- - Yes you did.

- In fact, we passed- - Senate substitute for house bill 903.

- In fact, we actually passed a bill, Senate Bill 912 this year that would've prevented a single square inch more of Missouri farm land for being sold to overseas entities.

But I didn't hear anything from the secretary or Mr. Kehoe congratulating for that.

It was actually the secretary's allies in the house that took that language out.

- We're out of time here, we're gonna get to that later.

- Mr. Ashcroft, the Chiefs and Royals, as you know, bring billions of dollars of economic activity, certainly to the Kansas City area.

But now Kansas lawmakers, as we've been reporting, are offering hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to try and lure the pro sports teams to move across the border.

So my question for you, how far would you go to try to keep the Chiefs and Royals here in Missouri?

- I don't believe that the government should be sticking its hand into your pocket to take money to give to billionaire team owners.

I think the right thing to do is to create an environment for all Missourians and all people that want to move to Missouri, all people that want to build manufacturing and other companies in Missouri, we want to make it a place where people want to be.

We do that by prioritizing parents in charge of their children's education.

We do that by prioritizing public safety.

We do that by cutting the budget, by getting rid of gas tax, Mike hikes, 12 1/2 cent gas hikes.

We get rid of the state personal income tax.

When we do that, we make our state a place where businesses and individuals and teams want to be.

Subsidies don't work.

It was tried when St. Louis had a basketball team.

They're gone.

It was tried with the St. Louis Cardinals football team.

They're gone.

It was tried with the St. Louis Rams football team.

They're gone.

Taking your money and giving it to billionaires is not the role of government and it won't happen under my watch.

- And Mr. Eigel, I actually wanna give you a chance to respond to that as well.

It seems this might be an area on which you two agree, in light of a tweet, I think, earlier this month where you said, "Governor Parson is busy slobbering over billionaire sports team owners trying to buy them a new stadium."

So your response to the same question.

- Yeah, I think that's right.

The reality is I think the Chiefs and the Royals are gonna make the right decision to stay in Kansas City.

They have a great fan base there.

They have a great, a whole thousands, millions of fans who have come out and have supported them over the years.

They're gonna make the right decision, but they're not gonna make that decision as a result of a taxpayer bailout for billionaires.

I'm left with the question is $18 for a hotdog not enough money for these billionaire owners?

I think it is.

We're gonna create a Missouri where they're never gonna consider leaving in the future.

- And I wanna switch topics now, we'll stay with you, Mr. Eigel.

You voted to enact Missouri's strict ban on abortion.

It includes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Meanwhile, across the state line in Kansas, we've seen voters voted to preserve access to abortions.

We know that's a possibility where voters could do the same, even overturning the abortion ban here in Missouri come November.

If that happens, will you commit to upholding and defending the Missouri Constitution despite your beliefs and your position, even if it includes protections for abortions?

- Well, first of all, Missouri's been a pro-life state for a long time.

I think we're gonna continue to be a pro-life state.

I'm 100% pro-life and you're darn right I voted for that bill because I'm one of the most conservative senators in the Missouri Senate in modern history.

But now we've got the abortionists that are trying to put abortion back into our Constitution and we're gonna stop 'em.

On August 7th, after this primary is over, I'm gonna unite the Republican Party by bringing them together and being the first state of the nation to defeat the abortionists at the ballot box.

But none of this would have to actually happen if my colleague up on stage had done his job under section 116.120 of state law and rejected this initiative petition from the abortionists from the ballot in the first place.

It has multiple subjects, it doesn't have an accurate fiscal note, and state law empowers him to make sure it never gets to the ballot box in the first place.

But what did he do?

He did nothing.

And now we're gonna have to fight this terrible battle against the abortionist again and put at risk more than 20 years of progress that we've made on this issue.

- [Caitlin] Well obviously, Mr. Ashcroft, wanna give you a chance for rebuttal here.

- Well this is typical Bill Eigel.

I was actually sued multiple times over this.

I fought to make sure that the people knew the truth about what was in this amendment.

The Bar Association came after my law license because I fought aggressively for the people's right to know.

The Missouri courts have put this on the ballot and I have not just been saying that I will work against it after the primary.

I've been working with pro-life groups to protect life.

I'm the only candidate endorsed by Missouri Right to Life.

And when this bill was passed and put in jeopardy by a referendum, I was the only one to stand up and say, "No, it will be the law."

- Then why won't you reject it from the ballot and protect the people of this state from abortion?

That's all you have to do.

- Well Bill, I don't have that authority to do that.

The courts have already ruled.

- You do under voting rule 16.120.

- You might wanna reread that again, Bill.

- You've been doing this- - [Mark] We're gonna move on.

- Both the Supreme Court and the Attorney General have said that you have it.

We need action from our leaders, not an absence.

- Thank you, we're gonna move on.

- Mr. Ashcroft, I actually will stay with this topic though for a follow up question for you.

On the campaign trail, you've suggested you could not in good faith and good conscience swear an oath to a constitution that would explicitly allow abortion.

- That's not what I said.

- [Caitlin] If voters elect you governor and approve the amendment to overturn - That's not what I said, ma'am.

- The abortion ban.

And you'll have a chance to respond then and you can correct me as needed.

If voters elect you governor, but voters do decide to protect abortion, would you resign as Governor elect or would you swear to uphold the abortion protections in the amended constitution?

- No, I would not resign.

What I said was if there were ever a time that I could not follow my oath, unlike in other individuals, I would resign.

If for some reason that somehow passes, I don't believe it will and I will continue to fight to make sure that we protect all life in this state, then I will do what wonderful people did 51 years ago when the United States Supreme Court made a terrible decision.

They said we're not gonna rest on that.

We're gonna get it changed.

And I will work to make sure it changes if it gets passed.

But I trust that the people of this state will do the right thing and will stop from passing that.

This abortion initiative petition would not take us back to Roe v. Wade.

It would allow abortion at any time for any reason.

You could abort a child because of the child's race.

You would not be allowed to protect a mother from mutilation or death caused by an individual that performed that.

This is not pro-woman.

This is pro-death.

I believe the people of the state will stand against it and I will help them to do so.

- We're gonna press you for a clarification on that.

Nowhere in the amendment or in the ballot question does it say anything about selecting a race?

How do you come to that conclusion?

- Because of the simple language of what it says.

It says, in court, and I was in court fighting this.

I actually filed as an attorney and entered the case.

That's how they came after my bar license.

They could not come up with a single restriction, they being individuals that had filed it, that would be allowed under this law.

And in fact, it would protect anyone that performed an abortion, even if they killed or mutilated the mother from any sort of criminal or civil punishment.

- [Mark] So you've imagined this theory?

- No, I haven't imagined at all.

I'm an attorney.

If you were an attorney you could probably read it and understand it, but this amendment would allow abortion from conception to the very last toenail of a child leaves the birth canal.

It would not allow any regulations to provide for the health of a woman and it would allow abortions for any reason and it would not allow for any protections for a mother undergoing an abortion.

This is a terrible thing.

It is not good for women.

It is not, obviously, not good for children in the womb.

And I'm gonna fight it as hard as I can.

- We're gonna switch gears real quick for a quick lightning round.

Candidates raise your hand to signify yes.

If your answer is no, keep your hand down.

Former President Donald Trump says strict abortion bans like Missouri's with no exceptions for rape or incest go too far.

When it comes to abortion, is Donald Trump wrong?

- I disagree with him in Missouri.

I believe that we need to protect all life and I'm proud to say that.

- Yeah.

- [Mark] You both say yes to that.

- Glad he followed my leadership on it.

- [Mark] A former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court says current state law does not explicitly protect in vitro fertilization.

State law says life begins at conception.

In your view, does that mean a frozen embryo deserves the same legal protections as a fetus developing in the womb?

- Yes.

- I guess so.

I mean, I've never really thought about it.

- We have a yes and a maybe.

- Sure, I'll say yes.

- [Mark] Senator Josh Hawley.

- Thank you for following my leadership.

- [Mark] Pardon?

Oh, Senator Josh Hawley recently described himself as a Christian nationalist.

Would you also use that label to describe yourself?

- I don't know what the definition of Christian national is.

I'm a Christian and I believe in this country and the people of this country.

But what does Christian nationalist mean?

- Senator Hawley defined it and I'm asking if you would use that label to describe yourself.

- What definition did he give?

- He said he describes himself that way.

It sounds like you're both keeping your hands down.

- What is that?

What is the definition of it?

You haven't given us the definition and you're asking us if we agree with it?

- [Carol] We'd probably have to ask him for his definition.

- [Mark] I figured- - Well, I mean, I mean, give us the definition and ask us if we agree with it.

- We're gonna move one.

- But don't say there's some definition, we're not gonna tell you what it is.

- [Mark] Okay.

- I mean, that's media at its finest.

- Uncomfortable with the question as it stands.

All right, would you commit to releasing your full tax returns before election day?

- Yes.

- [Mark] Is that a maybe?

- Yeah, I guess.

- [Mark] Can we?

- Sure.

- [Mark] Yes?

Will you ever consider raising taxes under any circumstances?

- No.

No, no.

- No, no.

Is that?

- He's raising his hands, but he's saying no.

- You need to put it down, down, down.

- Down on that one?

Okay.

No, we're never gonna, we're not gonna raise taxes.

- All right, that's our lightning round.

We're gonna move on here to a full question.

Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Kehoe has taken heat in his campaign for his past votes- - Is he here?

- To raise gas taxes?

He's not, as you can see that empty podium- - Well, he is not the only one running that's voted to raise your taxes.

My opponent to my right has also done that.

- I'm gonna ask you about this.

With more electric cars using Missouri Roads and highways, how will you ensure those drivers pay their fair share for the wear and tear on infrastructure we all use?

- Well, that's typical.

Believing that everybody needs to pay more taxes.

I don't think we need to raise more revenues.

We don't have a revenue problem.

We have a spending problem.

We have a government that's outta control.

Our government has grown by over $20 billion in the last six years, our state budget has.

We need to cut our government.

No one here, not even the media, thinks that we have twice as good a government as we did seven years ago.

We need to cut government and what we ought to do with roads, bridges, inland waterways, with education, and public safety, we should use general revenue for that.

When that gas tax was passed, and I fought it.

When that gas tax was passed, we had billions of dollars that were sitting to the side that the state didn't know what to do with it.

And instead they said, let's just go ahead and raise taxes on the people of this state.

I will not allow taxes to be raised in this state while I'm governor.

We will do the opposite.

We will lower taxes and we will cut the government, we will cut the spending so the taxes never go up even when I'm gone.

- Mr. Eigel, I'm gonna give you a chance for a rebuttal, but I'm gonna ask you this specific question.

Is it fair to people who drive gas vehicles that people who drive electric vehicles use the same roads and don't pay that gas tax?

- Well, it's interesting.

Even the people that are driving electrical vehicles are paying for a decal that charges roughly as much as what they're expected to pay in gas tax anyway.

And really all of this comes back to the idea that the tax burden is too high in this state.

We're spending too much money.

You know, when I came into the senate back in 2017, the state budget was $27 billion.

Now it's $52 billion.

I've got a plan to cut government, and when we do, we're gonna cut it back to the levels that are gonna accommodate getting rid of personal property tax in this state and eliminating the income tax in this state.

I'm the only one that's called for the elimination of both of those taxes in this campaign.

- All right, Mr. Ashcroft, when he was a state senator, Mr. Kehoe voted in 2013 to allow the sale of Missouri farmland to foreign countries, including China.

This has been a big issue in this race so far if you watch the campaign ads.

Why should voters care about a vote from a decade ago when so much of the world was different?

And if Missouri did ban the sale of Missouri land to all foreign investors, as Mr. Eigel has proposed, would a policy like that drive property values down?

- Well, first of all, it's not just something that happened in 2013.

I mean, maybe the reason he's not here is because he raised the gas tax so high that he couldn't afford to gas up his Chinese bus that he's touring Missouri in right now and get to our debate.

And in fact, last year when HB 903 out of the house would have forbid China and at least four or five other states from buying any, sorry, four or five other countries from buying any land in our state, he was silent.

And in fact, that bill passed the house, made it to the senate, and my colleague here voted to amend it to allow any foreign government to buy any land they want and even allow them to use it for genetic testing on human beings and animals.

That's wrong.

We should not do that.

And it's appropriate for the people of the state to be concerned about it.

And anybody who wants can look up senate substitute for House Bill 903.

- [Mark] Senator, or Mr. Eigel, I want to ask you for a rebuttal, but I also wanna ask you about...

The federal government, for example, will sometimes not wanna trade with adversary nations, but why ban investors in Canada from buying land in Missouri?

- So let me be really clear about this.

I want Missouri to be owned by Missourians or least Americans.

I've actually been leading the fight to actually undo the bad vote that Mike took, Mike Kehoe took back in 2013 to allow foreign entities to buy our land.

We passed a bill this year and last year, the secretary was not honest about the effects of the bill we passed last year.

The bill we passed this year was a ban of any foreign ownership of farmland within 500 miles of a military installation.

That's enough to cover any every square inch of Missouri.

And by the way, I'm the only candidate that's also not only wants to stop the land of our farmland, but we want to actually get every square inch of land we've lost back from foreign owners just like Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has done down in Arkansas.

- [Mark] Thank you.

- I do not want to leave you without an understanding of what Christian nationalism is.

According to "Christianity Today," going back to an earlier question that you asked.

According to "Christianity Today," Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.

Again, Senator Josh Hawley says he is a Christian nationalist.

So you would say?

- Yes.

- We were founded as a Christian nation and we want to keep those guiding principles, yes.

- All right.

Mr. Eigel, you oppose transgender medical procedures and therapy.

Can you be specific?

Does that opposition include mental health therapy, including talk therapy, for instance?

And if so, what is your advice to parents who are trying to help their children who identify as transgender?

- Well, I tell you, we're gonna protect our children from this transgender ideology.

I have two children.

When they were young, I didn't let 'em determine their bedtime, much less the gender that the Lord himself has ordained.

So I've already supported legislation to prohibit these treatments, these hormone therapies, these surgeries from being inflicted upon these children I've met some of the survivors of these therapies that have been physically maimed and have been set up for a lifetime of medicalization because of this harm that's being done to their bodies, not only physically but psychologically as well.

So, no, we're not gonna let this happen to any child in the state of Missouri.

And no matter where you are, I consider this abuse of a child.

We're gonna make sure this never happens within the borders of the great state of Missouri.

- And again, your advice to parents who are facing this?

- Listen, the parents go through a tremendous amount of difficulties.

As I said, I've had two children myself, but there's never a moment that it's appropriate to subject your children to child abuse, which is exactly what I think this is.

- [Mark] And a quick follow up.

You didn't answer the question on whether your ban would extend to talk therapy.

- I'm gonna cover all therapies that push the transgender ideology onto children at any place or any time.

Absolutely.

- Mr. Ashcroft, the Missouri Constitution prohibits the use of public aid for religious purposes and institutions, including any funding to sustain private or public schools controlled any religious creed.

Why do you think expanded tax breaks to fund the private school tax credit program are constitutional?

And if you want to use public funds for private schools, would you need to then change the constitution?

- The United States Supreme Court has spoken actually in a previous case to allow that.

So you cannot use religious discrimination as the reason why not to do that.

We should not do it with tax credits.

That's just getting the government involved, giving you some of your money back and saying, "You may have this, if you use it a specific way."

We should just take the money that would go to school for your child, put that into an account for the parent to make their own decision whether that child will go to public school, public charter, private school, homeschooling, parents know best and should decide how to use that.

And lemme just revert back.

It's not therapy to tell a a little child that they're a male, but can become a female or vice versa.

It's wrong.

It's not true.

It's not therapy, it's mutilation.

It's wrong.

I will make sure it doesn't happen as governor.

And frankly, I'm quite disappointed.

Although I testified in favor of the bill to stop that, the only statewide to do that, the Senate passed a bill that would only ban it for four years.

That's ridiculous.

We should protect our children in perpetuity.

And as governor, I would've called them back into session to make sure we did so.

- And I do wanna clarify, when we speak of therapy, I am speaking of therapists who would just be there to hear what parents and children are enduring not to tell them.

Does that make sense, sir?

- We do not help people by enabling them to have fantasies that are not true.

If you have a child that believes they're a bird and says, "I want to go jump off the third story of my house."

You don't say, "Sure, go do that."

As a parent, you say, "No, you're not a bird.

You're my child.

I'm proud of you and I'm gonna help you learn to grow and develop into the best young man or young woman you can be."

That's how you help people.

We should protect children from charlatans that would do otherwise.

- Mr. Eigel, question for you.

Your opponent promotes Missouri as top 10 in the country for election integrity, but you are pushing for hand counting of ballots.

Can you explain to voters what your research has shown that leads you to believe that ballot counting machines, in your words on your website, "are vulnerable to unscrupulous special interests?"

- Yeah, well we've seen from my own county clerk that they've acknowledged that there are are wires within these machines that can be connected to the internet.

And he had to take action to cut the wires himself in order to make sure that wasn't happening.

So I've opposed these Joe Biden voting machines in any of our elections.

And of course, we're gonna go back to the hand counting of ballots.

It worked for Missouri for more than a hundred years.

I'm the only candidate in this race that really wants to be serious about election integrity and go after the machines.

And I think the part of the reason that we've got a better ranking in those that you mentioned is because the legislature did some of what I would call low-hanging fruit.

We required a photo ID to vote in this state.

We got rid of the Zuckerbucks.

My opponent up on stage here, loved taking Zuckerbucks and allowing the private entities that are on the liberal left to come in and influence our direction, our elections.

Well, we put a stop to that.

We got rid of the drop box as we've been leading on that.

But I'd really like to hear him explain why he doesn't want to get rid of all these vote harvesting machines and voting machines that I think continue to make our elections vulnerable.

- [Carol] Would you like to respond?

- Yeah, I'm very happy.

I led the fight to get that bill done.

While senators were pontificating on social media, I was just off the senate floor working with actual senators to build that bill.

I've written legislation to improve our election several times.

The year before I had to kill a bill because the senate wanted to add six weeks of early voting, and I knew that was wrong for the people of the state.

For the first time ever, we require a photo ID government issued for people to vote.

We outlawed drop boxes, we outlawed ballot curing, we outlawed Zuckerbucks.

And when the Federal Department of Justice came into Missouri, I kicked him out.

I'm very happy of the fact that I've led on this issue.

- And could you clarify from your office standpoint and the experience that you have, the safety and the integrity of voting machines in the state of Missouri?

- Well, I'd be very happy if we required our ballots to be counted multiple times, but unfortunately, the legislature has refused to give me that authority.

Once again, the people responsible for writing laws have failed to write laws that would allow me to do what they say they want to do.

Local election authorities may hand count ballots right now, but I cannot require it because the Senate has refused to give me that authority.

- Well, I've been sponsoring and pushing legislation for years that would've had Missouri go back to the hand counting of ballots and gotten rid of almost every one of these machines.

And every time we had a hearing on this, I don't recall the secretary ever showing up to support that bill.

He accurately tells the story about how we were fighting in the Senate floor for those reforms like requiring a photo ID, but I was there the whole night with those other Republican conservative senators and I don't remember seeing the secretary being a part of that discussion or part of that environment.

So I'm glad of what we've done, but I think it's the low-hanging fruit.

If we wanna be serious about making sure our elections are secure, I continue to be the only one that's calling for the elimination of these voting machines that have made our elections vulnerable.

And I can tell by the secretary's response, he doesn't wanna make such a commitment.

- And I definitely need to move on here.

Mr. Ashcroft, you're campaigning on a promise to end the state's income tax which makes up a third of the state's budget.

Mr. Kehoe says cutting all state income tax would severely damage Missouri's ability to fund police education as well as infrastructure.

Can you respond?

- First of all, it's less than a third of the state's budget.

The state income tax was eight and a half billion dollars last year.

We're looking at a budget of over $50 million.

So let's make sure we get our facts right about that.

Secondly, the state budget has increased by over $20 billion over the last six years.

Even if you take out half of that and say that half is federal money, then that's $10 billion, which is far greater than eight and a half billion dollars.

The money is there to do that.

The problem is the Lieutenant Governor, who is not here to defend because he can't, wants to use the people of this state as his piggy bank.

He wants to use your tax dollars to give to his donors so he can buy favor with people.

The purpose of government is not to take your money and give it to other people.

It should only be to do what has to be done and can only be done by government.

That's why we need to get it back to you.

Funding for education, public safety, roads, bridges, and inland waterways and let people keep their own money.

- Gentlemen, if we can switch gears here.

Let's talk about the political climate a little bit.

Following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, we've certainly heard calls from both sides of the aisle to tone down some of the overheated political rhetoric.

Mr. Eigel, you've used props such as flame throwers and firearms to sell your vision for the state of Missouri.

And since the assassination attempt, you've said that you won't stop using that kind of imagery.

So how can voters take your calls to discourage violence seriously?

- Well, first of all, every ad that we've put out is talking about my vision for the state and particularly the ideas that I have that's gonna make Missouri a leader in these United States.

So when we're talking about arresting and deporting the illegals, absolutely we're gonna be bold about that message.

When we're talking about eliminating personal property tax.

All these questions, we still haven't had a question about getting rid of personal property tax and I'm pretty sure there's a lot of folks out there tonight that would like to hear more about eliminating the rent that you have to pay on your car.

When we're talking about protecting our farmland, not allowing any foreign countries, I'm the only individual on this stage that's voted for a bill that would've completely banned foreign ownership of our farmland in the state of Missouri.

And yet I keep seeming to get attacked by these false attacks against me.

So these ideas are what is gonna unite the Republican Party.

Donald Trump has been talking a lot about uniting the Republican Party.

I think that's the right message.

He's gonna make a great president.

But our ideas about what it means to be a Republican, supporting lower taxes, making government smaller, protecting the rights of our citizen, that ultimately is gonna unite the Republican Party in Missouri.

- Mr. Ashcroft, 30 seconds for a rebuttal.

- Look, we need consistent conservatives, not convenient conservatives.

We need conservatives that vote to protect our farmland in odd numbered years, not just an even numbered years.

We need conservatives that always are against tax increases and we need conservatives that will actually cut the size and scope of government.

Over the last six years, our state government has virtually doubled.

That was the legislature's doing.

We don't need someone that's doubled our government in our governor's mansion to continue to do so.

- We did have some more questions.

Unfortunately, we're running low on time.

We're gonna have to get to our closing statements here.

Each candidate, you will have 90 seconds to make a closing statement to our audience.

We're gonna begin with you, Mr. Ashcroft.

- Thank you, as your Secretary of State, I've worked to move our elections from being ranked 11th in the nation to being in the top three.

And it wasn't easy.

We had a legislature that voted to allow anyone who wanted to send in mail-in ballots and even fought to keep them from having to be notarized.

But I didn't stand down.

I fought, and for the first time ever in 2022, we had a true government-issued photo ID requirement for people that wanted to vote.

We outlawed Zuckerbucks, we outlawed ballot curing.

We made the paper ballot the official ballot of the state.

And when the United States Department of Justice sent federal agents to Cole County, Missouri saying that we didn't know how to vote without them being there.

Of the 64 jurisdictions in 24 states, Missouri was the first one to stand up and say, "No, pound sand, you're not allowed to be here."

Only two states did that.

As your Secretary of State, I've stood up to protect children and make sure parents were in charge of what they were seeing at libraries, cutting off funding for libraries that would have inappropriate material there for children.

As your Secretary of State, I'm leading the nation in protecting investors.

I'm now being sued across the nation.

I'm being sued by firms because they want to use your money for woke social agendas that don't get you the rate of return that you should.

I'm running for governor because Missourians deserve more.

They deserve leadership.

They need someone to plot a course and show them how they can be better than they even realize.

I've passed and gotten forth more conservative legislation than any other statewide.

And with your help, we'll put parents in charge of their children's education.

We will back the blue and get 1,000 new officers on the street in the first year, and we will slash the size and scope of our state and give eight and a half billion dollars back to you, the people.

- Thank you.

Mr. Eigel?

- The Missouri I'm talking about, I have a suspicion that there's a lot of folks out there interested in that Missouri, because every two years on the first Tuesday in November, you show up and ask for it.

And it's a Missouri where we're getting rid of personal property tax.

You know, 29 of the states have gotten rid of personal property tax and yet to tell you where the conversation typically goes, particularly in these media circles, we've gotten three or four questions about gun grabbing tonight, but not a single question about eliminating personal property tax.

Under an Eigel administration, we're not gonna do any gun grabbing, we're gonna eliminate personal property tax.

I'm the only candidate in this race that's made a commitment that we are gonna arrest and deport every single one of the 77,000 illegal immigrants that are in the state of Missouri right now.

I'm the only candidate ready to stand with Donald J. Trump to make sure that becomes a reality.

Mike Kehoe calls it impractical.

Mike Kehoe calls it foolish.

He's not even here tonight to answer a few questions about his liberal voting record.

We're gonna protect our farm land in this state.

And really, protecting our food supply is a national security issue.

We shouldn't have any foreign country buying our land.

I'm the only person up on this stage and in this race that's voted consistently to actually protect the farmland of the state.

Missouri ought to be owned by Missourians or at least Americans.

We're gonna get that back every single square inch we lost because of Mike Kehoe's vote in 2013.

And finally, we are gonna protect our kids from the pornography, from this transgender nonsense, this DEI CRT nonsense in our schools.

We're gonna defund the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

We're gonna get a Missouri that's the envy of the nation.

Pretty soon, another gubernatorial candidate in some other state's gonna say to themselves and say to the people following them, "Let's do conservative big, red things and we're gonna be more like the state of Missouri."

Let's go, Missouri.

- That's all of our time, I wanna thank both of you candidates for making the effort to be here.

I know there's a lot of busy things you could be doing on the campaign trail.

Also, thank you to both of our moderators, Caitlin Knute and Carol Daniel for joining us here at this debate.

The Missouri primary is August 6th, make a plan to vote.

That's your duty as an American citizen.

That's it for us, have a great night.

- [Jay] Thank you very much.

(upbeat patriotic music)