A Missouri judge ruled Friday that the self-proclaimed former “honorary” member of the Ku Klux Klan can remain in the state's Republican primary for governor. That's despite efforts by the Missouri Republican Party to remove him from the vote.
“Plaintiffs have failed to present evidence to the court that Mr. McClanahan's appearance on the primary election ballot would cause harm,” Circuit Judge Cotton Walker wrote in his ruling. “Mr. McClanahan's presence on the primary ballot does not necessarily imply endorsement of the candidate by the party.”
In February, the state Republican Party announced that its front-runner in the 2022 gubernatorial race, Darrell Leon McClanahan III, would be the Republican candidate for governor after the Anti-Defamation League published an article detailing McClanahan's history of extremism. He announced that he is working toward excluding him from the primary election. The article also includes a photo that appears to show the candidate giving a Nazi salute in front of a burning cross and standing next to a KKK member.
The Missouri Republican Party said in February that McClanahan's KKK affiliation is “fundamentally inconsistent with the values and platform of our party.”
NBC News has not independently verified McClanahan's photo, but a February report said the candidate confirmed the photo's authenticity to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“They have a bad image of me,” McClanahan told the outlet about the photo of himself in front of the cross, insisting he was “not a Nazi” and noting another photo of himself with KKK members. He said he had confirmed the photo. After dispatch.
In a more than 1,100-word response to NBC News' request for comment on the judge's ruling, McClanahan said he is “not a racist” and “not an anti-Semite.”
“Please report the real news,” McClanahan said in a series of unpunctuated texts. “You're just looking for the hashtag KKK. It's an invisible empire that admits to being a member of the KKK.”
The Missouri Republican Party did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment on the judge's decision Saturday.
McClanahan said in court documents that he was not a member of the KKK. However, he said he was “offered one year of honorary membership” by the KKK Missouri state coordinator.
In the same court document, McClanahan said, “In 2019, I attended a private Christian Identity religious cross lighting ceremony that was incorrectly described as a cross burning ceremony.”
