By JASON HANCOCK, Missouri Independent
State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman has abandoned her run for Congress and instead filed to join the crowded GOP primary for Missouri Secretary of State.
Coleman, an attorney and first-term Republican from Arnold, said in announcing her candidacy that there is “no more important job than protecting the integrity of our elections and our founding documents.”
Her announcement comes hours after House Speaker Dean Plocher announced that he, too, was pivoting to the secretary of state race. The scandal-plagued Republican from Des Peres had originally filed to run for lieutenant governor.
Besides Coleman and Plocher, the other Republicans running for secretary of state are Valentina Gomez, a real estate investor also making her first run for office; Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller; state Sen. Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg; state Rep. Adam Schwadron of St. Charles; Jamie Corley, a longtime GOP Congressional staffer and leader of an abandoned campaign to legalize abortion; and Mike Carter of St. Charles, an attorney who placed second in the 2020 primary for lieutenant governor.
Coleman was one of the first Republicans to jump into the 3rd District congressional race after U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer announced his plans to retire.
Two former Republican state senators — Kurt Schaefer of Columbia and Bob Onder of Lake St. Louis — are considered the frontrunners for the seat.
In announcing her decision to run for secretary of state, Coleman made no mention of her now-abandoned congressional bid.
“We need a conservative fighter who will stand up to the out of state special interests,” she said, “and protect Missourians from the woke ideology infecting our country and communities.”