Greene County's Schoeller among crowded field of GOP candidates for MO Secretary of State

Correction: This story was updated to clarify that Schoeller clerked for Secretary of State Matt Blunt while his wife was in law school. An earlier version stated that he served in this role while he was in law school.

In the last few weeks, the race for the Republican nomination for Missouri Secretary of State in 2024 has gotten a bit crowded.

Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller is among the five candidates running on the Republican ticket. Currently, Missouri Ethics Commission filings show no Democratic candidates.

“I have for a long time and continue to have a passion for election integrity and transparency,” Schoeller said. “I firmly believe every time a voter casts their ballot, they need to have the utmost confidence that the election was secure, accurate and fair, and I understand what that means as chief election authority here in Greene County.”

He will compete against state Senators Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, and Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, both of whom are term-limited and cannot seek reelection in the Missouri Senate.

Also in the race are Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, and political newcomer Valentina Gomez Noriega, who, at the age 24, would be among the youngest women to run for public office in state history. State Rep. Mazzie Boyd, R-Hamilton, is also 24 years old.

Despite the crowded field, Schoeller feels his experience in various elected positions over the years make him especially well-equipped to fulfill the duties of the Missouri Secretary of State.

Schoeller worked in the state office while his wife was in law school at the University of Missouri, when Matt Blunt was Secretary of State from 2001-2005, prior to Blunt’s successful bid for Missouri Governor in 2004.

Prior to serving as Greene County Clerk, Schoeller was elected in 2006 to represent the state’s 139th district in the Missouri House of Representatives, serving a total of 6 years. In 2011, he was unanimously chosen to be Speaker Pro Tem of the House for the 96th General Assembly.

Following the resignation of former Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives Steven Tilley in 2012, Schoeller served in this role briefly until a new speaker was elected.

This isn’t Schoeller’s first bid for Missouri Secretary of State. He was the Republican nominee for Missouri Secretary of State in 2012, but narrowly lost to Democratic candidate Jason Kander, falling short by just 1.5% of the statewide vote.

Following this, Schoeller served as the executive director for the Missouri Republican Party. In 2014, he ran for Greene County Clerk, a position he has held for three consecutive terms.

In this role for the past nine years, Schoeller gained a deeper understanding of Missouri’s election process, knowledge he feels had prepared him to hit the ground running, if elected.

“I'll be ready on day one to work with every election authority across our state,” Schoeller said.

Schoeller hopes to safeguard investments, implement signature verification on absentee ballots

As the state’s chief election authority, the Missouri Secretary of State is responsible for administering all statewide elections, initiative petitions, and making known the rules governing elections and electronic voting systems.

Schoeller said one of his top priorities will be ensuring that the chain of custody involving ballots is secure. The chain of custody refers to the paper trail documenting the transfer of materials, in this case ballots, as they make their way through the elections system.

“When you look at the issues that people highlighted in 2020, I think that, when you look at chain of custody documentation, it's critical that we do that and do it well,” Schoeller said.

He refers to claims of elections fraud in the 2020 election. Current Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is running for governor in 2024, certified that Missouri’s election results were accurate, but supported stronger audits in the future.

Schoeller called to attention the rising call from some conservative activists to conduct hand-counted elections in a larger percentage of precincts, but he recognizes the burden this would place on local election authorities and workers.

“I don't disagree with that idea, but we need to give election authorities more time and resources to be able to do that,” Schoeller said.

One part of a recent voter integrity bill did away with the requirement that an election judge must seek permission to serve in that role in a county that they don’t reside in. Schoeller thinks this will help in the recruitment of bipartisan election judges who work in polling places.

“How can we help make sure that you've got real bipartisanship, because that's what you're really ensuring is that there's integrity in every election?” Schoeller said. “Because you've got two individuals of each party watching the processes. They're handing out the ballots and checking in the voters to vote that day.”

Schoeller also wants to see a law enacted requiring absentee ballots be returned by mail, while also enacting signature verification to ensure that the voter’s signature on the returned absentee ballot matches the one on their voter registration.

In August, Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and conservative activist prone to spreading conspiracy theories, visited Springfield and mobilized his supporters to place wireless monitoring devices in or near polling places to make sure that machines are not connected to the internet.

When the theory that voting machines could be hacked through internet connections was first circulating, Schoeller personally certified that machines in Greene County were not connected to the internet.

“We went to look at the election equipment here in the county,” Schoeller said. “I went to various departments to make sure there was no wireless connectivity with our election equipment.”

Schoeller does acknowledge that there can be mistakes in the programming of some machines. However, the auditing processes already conducted in county and statewide races ensure that a percentage of the results in each race are hand-counted and spot checked.

“When you then take those hand-counted results and compare them to what the machine tabulated, that is your best verification for the accuracy of whether or not that machine was accurately tabulating the day of the election,” Schoeller said.

More: Missouri politicians make appearances at Mike Lindell’s Election Crime Bureau event

What are the other responsibilities of the Missouri Secretary of State?

The office of the Missouri Secretary of State is best known for its work on elections and writing ballot summary language for initiative petitions, but there are actually quite a few responsibilities under its umbrella, all of which share the common theme of information.

“There's a number of duties there that are encompassed with the Secretary of State's office, and that are very similar to the experience I had as county clerk in terms of overseeing those various different administrative duties,” Schoeller said.

Apart from elections, the office is also responsible for ensuring compliance with state securities laws. One division of this focuses on letting investors know the risks associated with investing.

“I think something that really is important to me is that we want to ensure that every time an investor goes to invest their own personal hard earned dollars, that they know that investment is safeguarded,” Schoeller said.

One such example is the Vulnerable Citizens Services Unit, which is best known for its efforts to protect senior citizens from falling victim to fraud.

“When you think about tough economic times, it's not uncommon that people will prey on people during those periods of time to try to deprive them of their money,” Schoeller said.

The registration division ensures that investment professionals are qualified and in compliance with securities laws, while the enforcement division deals with complaints, tips, and referrals, as well as conducting investigations and initiating actions to remedy violations.

The business services division creates and maintains businesses in the state, commissions public notaries, processes personal property lien filings and protects the confidentiality of home addresses for members of vulnerable populations who fear harm if their location is publicly listed.

It also maintains the Missouri State Library, a massive collection of works from Missouri authors and others. Under this branch of the Secretary of State’s office is the responsibility to ensure equal access to library and information services across the state.

In that same vein, the records and archives division maintains all current and historical records of the state and guarantees access to Missouri citizens. Finally, the administrative rules division publishes various state rules and regulations.

“The office oversees archives for the state just like I do for the county, so I understand that very well,” Schoeller said.

More: Politician or the people's lawyer? How the role of Missouri Attorney General has evolved

Additional challengers vie for victory in the Republican primary

As the August 2024 primary grows closer, more Republican candidates are entering the race. So far, the Democratic field lays empty, after Rep. Alan Gray, D-Black Jack, switched his Missouri Ethics Commission paperwork to indicate he plans to run for Black Jack City Council next spring.

Among the Republican candidates is Rowden, the state senator from Columbia, who announced his candidacy during the Mizzou Homecoming parade on Oct. 21. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said that he wanted his “hometown #MIZZOU faithful to be the first to know about our future plans.”

Rowden did not respond to requests for comment.

Born in Joplin, Rowden had quite a different career prior to entering politics. He was a full-time minister and touring Christian singer and songwriter, whose musical performances can still be viewed in old Youtube videos.

Nowadays, Rowden serves as president pro tem of the state Senate and represents the 19th state senatorial district in the Missouri General Assembly. Prior to this, he served two terms in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Colleague Hoskins is also in the race, and has served alongside Rowden in the Senate since 2016. Both senators are term-limited in the Senate. Hoskins also previously held office in the Missouri House of Representatives.

During the last legislative session, Hoskins led successful opposition to another senator’s sports betting bill, after his own legislation aiming to legalize wagering on athletic matches, while legalizing video lottery games, was not approved by a Senate committee. No bill was passed to legalize sports betting during the 2023 legislative session.

Rep. Schwadron, of St. Charles, has served two terms in the Missouri House of Representatives and wants to keep the federal government out of the administration of Missouri’s elections, enact signature verification and ensure only citizens vote in elections.

“Election security has been my primary legislative focus since I was first sworn into office in January 2021,” Schwadron said in a release. “Free and fair elections are the bedrock of our republic. Too many people have fought and died for the right to participate in elections only to have suspected fraud and corruption take away the value of our vote."

Although he comes from a “purple district,” he touts his commitment to conservative values.

“My lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 92 is proof that I enter the race for Secretary of State as the most conservative candidate,” Schwadron said.

Gomez Noriega, a newcomer to state politics, earned her master's degree in business administration in finance and strategy from Tulane University. Her campaign goals include protecting Second Amendment rights, supporting law enforcement and protecting children from the “transgender agenda,” among other goals.

Through her “Woman on a Mission” campaign, she hopes to “ bring fresh perspectives into the political discourse, especially among young people,” according to a release announcing her candidacy.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Field of GOP candidates grows in 2024 Missouri Secretary of State race