The Boone County Republican Women’s Club heard Saturday from prominent speakers in the party, including U.S. Rep. Bob Onder and state Rep. John Martin.
Held at the Family Worship Center on East Bonne Femme Church Road, the program was a celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States.
Onder’s 3rd Congressional District, which spreads across a large portion of mid-Missouri, includes the southern part of Columbia and Boone County.
The event came the day after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that Missouri must use the 2022 congressional map in the upcoming election, not the Republican-backed 2025 map.
“I think the Supreme Court got it egregiously wrong,” Onder said.
He said that since so many processes of the election had already taken place using the new map, it was the wrong decision to stick with the old map used since 2022.
“The election has begun. The election began when (Gov. Mike) Kehoe signed that map,” Onder said.
“Certainly, by the end of February, when candidate filing happened, the die was cast, and certainly by the time filing closed the election had already begun,” he argued. “Certainly, by the time primary voters — 1.2 million of us — cast our votes on Aug. 4, yes, the election had begun.”
Martin, whose district encompasses parts of the eastern half of Boone County, primarily focused on explaining ballot issues voters will face in November, espousing his party’s stance on each.
However, Martin took time to explain that he is not in favor of Amendment 7, an initiative many Republicans want to pass. Amendment 7 seeks to create a permanent state investment fund where the profits would eventually be set up to replace all state tax revenue. This would leave state funding entirely dependent on the success of the investment fund.
Martin said that while he found the idea worth looking into, he couldn’t support it due to lack of clarity in how the plan would be executed.
“Personally, I’m more of a negative on it, just because of a lack of details,” Martin said.
James Eagan, a public defender and Republican candidate for Division 9 judge, spoke of his career in public service. He said he had no qualms with his opponent, Democrat Bill Ellis, but felt he simply had more experience.
“The motto of my campaign is that experience matters,” Egan said. “I believe that I have the experience not only to keep Boone County safer, but to also help alleviate the backlog, and to make our courts more efficient.”
James Lawson, campaign manager for Her Health Her Future, a political action committee supporting Amendment 3, gave his personal perspective on why the right to life matters.
Lawson was adopted and said he met his sister a few years ago and discovered that she was raised by their abusive biological father.
“My sister and I were not an inconvenience to be thrown out at birth,” Lawson said.
Lawson urged attendees to talk with their like-minded neighbors and friends to go to the polls. “This is a race of turnout,” he said.
Lawson said he believed that you couldn’t change someone’s stance on abortion. The next speaker, Heather Overstreet, respectfully disagreed.
Overstreet, a political commentator and entrepreneur, said her mind was changed.
“Fear can do incredible things, and it can compromise your morals,” she said as she described how she was secretly pro-choice as a teenager until she heard conservative commentator Ben Shapiro describe that men need to be stepping in to care for pregnant women.
Her message was simple: Be more outgoing. She related it to the structure of a church. Being greeted when you walk through the door, you’re introduced to people who introduce you to more people.
“Be inclusive the right way, not the left way,” she said.
Nate Vass, president of the Mizzou chapter of Turning Point USA, and Brenden Poteet, president of MU College Republicans, described their organizations as a space for Republican and independent students to attend events and have civil discourse about political issues.
Vass noted a dramatic increase in membership with his group following an event with conservative commentator Shane Winnings.
“We had 168 people sign up just on Wednesday alone for our email list, so we’re getting more and more people involved,” Vass said.
“(We should be) celebrating that we’re a free country, and that we can fight for the freedom,” said Carolyn Woodward, president of the 3rd District Republican Women.
The celebration included lunch and time for the attendees to look at silent auction items. They also heard from University of Missouri Police Chief Brian Weimer on the challenges of his department managing what is in essence a city of 55,000.