ST. LOUIS – The four Republican gubernatorial candidates had their 12th forum of the election in St. Louis Monday evening on FOX 2 News.
The candidates discussed their policy positions and occasionally traded barbs at each other and the state’s current governor, Jay Nixon, while explaining why they would be a better fit in the office than him or Democratic nominee Attorney General Chris Koster.
It marked one of the first debates and forums by the candidates that did not take place in front of a live audience, instead simply taking place in Fox 2’s studios.
Questions revolved around transportation and I-70, race relations and crime, but this debate also featured questions about the Republican Party’s presidential nominee Donald Trump. All of the candidates voiced that while they had disagreements with some of the more controversial things he has said, they would support the party’s choice. Former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway said she would campaign with him if he came to Missouri, but businessman John Brunner gave a less definitive response, saying he hoped Trump campaigned for him. Both Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens said they wanted to run their own campaigns.
“I believe each candidate paddles his own canoe,” Kinder said.
The campaign had few other major moments of contention, but one that stood out came when Hanaway and Kinder went after Greitens when Hanaway said in a question relating to racial tensions in the state that some communities felt police only existed to chase people down and punish them instead of provide law and order.
“I wouldn’t place the problem on police officers,” Greitens said.
Hanaway told Greitens that he should not “pre-judge or mischaracterize what I said.” Kinder chimed in that Greitens had already mischaracterized the culture in Jefferson City with Greitens’ support of zero-based budgeting, which Kinder called a “nostrum” that would fail to produce the desired results.
Brunner largely avoided the conflict as he has in past debates, but in his closing argument spoke against the group that had launched a negative campaign against him.
Throughout the rest of the debate, each candidate tried to stand out in their own way. Brunner stressed his business experience and working with urban communities when asked about racial tensions in the state. Kinder told of his support his urban areas and railed against the “PC foolishness” that had caused the protests at the University of Missouri. Hanaway stressed her role as a law and order candidate, but also stressed cutting the income tax as a main economic priority. Greitens continued to push that corruption had taken a firm hold of politicians in Jefferson City and that he would fight it.
Fox 2 anchor Shirley Washington, Fox 4 anchor John Holt from Kansas City, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s political editor Christopher Ave moderated the debate.
