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McCloskey: I’ll represent the people of this state

Recalling his experience as an attorney in St. Louis, Mark McCloskey said he hopes to represent all Missourians if he wins his U.S. Senate bid

“As a United States Senator, I’ll represent the people of this state,” McCloskey said. “I’ll represent their opportunity through self-reliance and hard work to make something of themselves and to not ask for favors but to ask for an opportunity to succeed regardless of their background.”

McCloskey is one of several hopefuls vying for U.S. Senator Roy Blunt’s seat. Thus far, he is up against former Gov. Eric Greitens, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, and Attorney General Eric Schmitt for the Republican nomination. 

McCloskey appeared on Sunday’s episode of “This Week in Missouri Politics” to discuss his campaign and his family’s response to last year’s protest that propelled him to the national spotlight and led to his involvement with former President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

He also covered his political views, decrying what he saw as an attempt from the other side of the aisle to divide the country.  

“I think the thing that made this the greatest country on earth is our basic documents [declaring] that we’re free to do what we feel is correct,” he said. “Right on the seal of Missouri it says ‘united we stand, divided we fall,’ and the powers of the left are doing everything they can to divide us because they’d like to see us fall and not continue to progress.”

Medicaid expansion

Reps. Marlene Terry and Steve Butz joined Franklin County Presiding Commissioner Tim Brinker and Scott Dieckhaus, a partner at Palm Strategic Group, on this week’s panel. The group discussed the U.S. Senate race as well as last week’s Missouri Supreme Court decision declaring the voter-approved Medicaid expansion constitutional. 

Butz said the change would be a boon for the state as a whole, pointing to the support for the measure in the legislature as well as across the state’s industries. 

“It’s not just Democrats, clearly. I mean it’s the business community, it’s the rural hospitals. It was the will of the people,” Butz said. “It’s good health policy, it’s good humanitarianism, it’s good economic policy — I believe this is going to be a big win.”

Dieckhaus analyzed the possible impact of the decision to overturn a lower court’s verdict declaring the ballot measure unconstitutional based on the lack of a stated funded mechanism, speculating that changes to the state’s court system and initiative petition process could be on the horizon. 

“There are some interesting conversations that have already started. Certainly, you’ve got people talking about court reform,” he said. “Essentially now we’ve opened the door for interest groups to put issues on the ballot without a funding mechanism. … I think this is an opportunity that the legislature should take to put a check on the courts.”

Watch the full episode of “This Week in Missouri Politics” below, or listen to the podcast version here