By Peggy Welker

In January 2024, the Missouri Freedom Caucus (MO-FC) was created as “a coalition of conservative lawmakers and local leaders committed to defending liberty, restoring accountability, and standing up for the people of Missouri.” They pledge to filter their support for legislation through a set of values which include constitutional rights, parental authority, limited government and pushing back against a globalist collectivism and a godless society. The Freedom Caucus has a history of risk-taking. Their members have sponsored conservative reforms on crime, immigration, Sharia law, tax reform and initiative petition reforms. But are we seeing the fruit of their efforts?

 

The Grace Church Civic Engagement team researched all the contested races in the St. Louis and St. Charles Metro area running in the Democrat and Republican parties during the August 2026 Primary election. The most common endorsements of Democrats were Missouri’s National Organization for Women (a pro-abortion, pro-feminist intersectional activism group) and Access MO (a Jewish-inspired organization that is pro-abortion) promotes the exclusion of Christian principles in government policy. The most common endorsements of Republicans were Missouri Right to Life PAC, Missouri Freedom Caucus, Freedom Principle MO- Missouri First PAC, 82 Alliance, Missouri Firearms Coalition and C-PAC conservative voting scores.

 

For the August primary, the candidates endorsed by Missouri’s Freedom Caucus who also won their primary election are below.

      • US Rep Bob Onder, an “emeritus member” of the MO Freedom Caucus and a founder of its predecessor The Conservative Caucus”, won his primary to continue as a US Representative for the St. Charles area.
      • Bill Hardwich (State Senator) endorsed by MO-FC. Has a 90% CPAC Rating.
      • Nick Schroer (State Senator), current Chair of the Freedom Caucus, was unopposed in the Republican primary.
      • Jill Carter (State Senator, District 32) has been a member of the Freedom Caucus in the past. She has a lifetime CPAC rating of 91%. She handily won her race in the Republican Primary
      • State Representative, District 64 Deanna Self is endorsed by MO-FC. She won decisively with 78% compared to her opponent at 22% of the vote.She also has a 100% 2025 CPAC Rating
      • State Representative District 97 Candidate Dave Robertson ran to beat incumbent State Representative David Casteel. Dave Robertson worked closely with TPUSA door-knocking in Arizona previously and knew that connecting with the voters was the key to winning their vote. He won over David Casteel by 508 votes.
      • State Representative, District 101 Ben Keathley is endorsed by MO-FC and is the Vice-Chairman of MO-FC. He did not have a Republican primary opponent.
      • State Representative, District 108 Mike Costlow is an incumbent with a pro-life endorsement. He won his Primary.
      • State Representative, District 118 Amy Declue representing Washington and Franklin County did not have a Primary opponent and will move on to the November election She was endorsed by Missouri Right to Life.
      • State Rep, District 140 Jamie Gragg representing Ozark MO is worth mentioning. He won his primary. His August 2nd Facebook post stated, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3. Has an 82% CPAC Rating
      • Candidate for State Representative, District 161 Thomas Ross had a difficult race to represent the Joplin area. He was endorsed by Liberty Action and MO Freedom Principle. He won his election by 31 votes (every vote counts)!

In St. Louis County, Rita Heard Days (Democrat, District 1) has formed bipartisan alliances with Republican colleagues on the St. Louis County Council in standing up to County Executive Sam Page. She also voted with Republicans in late 2025 for deeper budget cuts and aligned with Republicans to strengthen council oversight of Executive Page since 2019. Days had a Primary opponent in Maria Chappelle-Nadal (who supports the merging of St. Louis City and County) and former Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones, but she won her race handily.

 

Another Democrat race worth mentioning is the U.S. Representative race for District 1 between former U.S. Representative Cori Bush and current U.S. Representative Wesley Bell. There were two ways in which this race was significant: the amount of funds spent and the ideologies put forth by the candidates. It turns out that the main difference between them was not their ethnicity (both are African American), but that Wesley Bell is a supporter of Israel and Cori Bush is a Democrat Socialist (DSA) candidate:

      • Wesley Bell and outside PACs supporting him spent $7.2 million to Cori Bush’s $1.2 million. Of Wesley Bell’s $7.2 million, more than $3 million came from the AIPAC-linked super PAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States.
      • Wesley Bell won 65% of the vote with Cori Bush garnering 31%, considered a strong win by Wesley Bell.

The next significant item was the oversized Missouri state government budget. Although the legislature ended in May, the Missouri 2026-2027 fiscal budget did not get finalized until the end of June, 2026. The Missouri legislature knew that it must dramatically reduce spending this year. Below is a synopsis of budget successes:

      • The MO Legislature passed a $50.7 billion state budget after the Missouri legislature trimmed the original budget by $374 million in general revenue spending.
      • It minimized reduction to the spending for people with disabilities after approximately 2,000 individuals with disabilities and family members repeatedly visited Jefferson City and spoke directly with many legislators, including State Representative Darin Chappel who chairs the MO Budget and Social Services Committee.
      • Governor Kehoe reduced that budget by another $493 million after the legislative session ended. But even with all those cuts, the MO legislature will still need to use $2.3 billion from accumulated surpluses.
      • Much of our budget issues were as a result of Covid CARES Act funding which brought the General Revenue Fund into a peak of $5.8 billion. With this surplus, education, Medicaid/healthcare and highway project spending was expanded. But after the funding was depleted, the same spending level continued. Now we find that we must severely tighten Missouri’s budget – a very unpopular and very complex process to navigate. This fiscal year, Missouri was able to use some surpluses. Next year the cuts will need to be even deeper.
      • When Paul reminds us to pray for those who govern us, we can also pray for wisdom to navigate things such as budgets.

My hope is that this overview will spark a curiosity in you to dig deeper into the Missouri Freedom Caucus or CPAC’s scoring of state legislators. How do they need us to pray for them in the upcoming January 2027 legislative session? Here is my prayer:

Father, we read Proverbs 28:2 which says “when a land is in rebellion, it has many rulers, but with a discerning and knowledgeable person, it endures. Dear Father, we lift our voices to you and ask for every legislator in our state’s capital would have a desire to seek Your Wisdom and Insight into complex political matters. Give them a humility to acknowledge that they need You in their everyday lives. In Jesus Name, Amen.

 

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