Western Missouri County's GOP Candidates Required to Sign Candidate Pledge or Face Disqualification

Loyalty Pledge, Anyone?

Vernon County, Missouri, on the western border of the state, is the first county in the Show-Me State to demand that only ‘real Republicans’ can file for office.

As you can read in the (badly pictured, sorry) application above, GOP candidates MUST check off all the lines on the pledge to even be considered for filing with the blessing of the county party.

The tag line at the bottom—“Republican Association of Central Committees of MO”—and the admonition that no modifications of the form are allowed are a sure indicator that we’ll see this popping up in other counties across MO.