Live updates: With MO Senate race looming, KC area voters talk public safety, abortion

Polls in Missouri will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m as voters in the Kansas City area cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary elections.

Voters will have the opportunity to make their picks for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House in Washington, D.C., and in the Missouri State Senate and House of Representatives in Jefferson City.

The biggest of those races is for the open U.S. Senate seat in Missouri as Sen. Roy Blunt retires.

The three candidates leading the Republican field to fill that seat are former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler.

U.S. Rep. Billy Long, St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey and state Sen. Dave Schatz are all vying to remain in contention.

On the Democratic side, the race is largely between philanthropist Trudy Busch Valentine and former Marine Lucas Kunce. Spencer Toder, a St. Louis area real estate agent, is also trying to remain in the conversation.

For information about voting, check the website of the Missouri Secretary of State.

Trudy Busch Valentine wins MO Democratic Senate primary

Updated 10:24 p.m. Philanthropist and Anheuser-Busch beer heir Trudy Busch Valentine won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Missouri Tuesday, with a message of restoring civility in Washington, D.C. that was amplified by $5 million of her own money.

Democrats now head into the general election with female nominee who worked as a nurse at the top of a ticket in a year where the party will heavily emphasize women’s health care and abortion rights in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that overturned a constitutional right to an abortion, leaving the decision up to the states.

Busch Valentine will face Republican state Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who played a key role in implementing Missouri’s abortion ban just minutes after the Supreme Court decision in June.

Schmitt wins Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Missouri

Updated 9:07 p.m. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, thwarting embattled former Gov. Eric Greitens’ electoral comeback attempt with a campaign fueled by a wave of politically-charged lawsuits.

Republicans now head into the general election with a standard bearer many are confident can easily dispatch the Democratic nominee. Schmitt has cast himself as a key ally for conservatives in a struggle with liberals on everything from taxes to gun rights to critical race theory.

Control of the evenly-divided Senate may hinge on the outcome of the race. Republicans are widely expected to make gains in Congress in November as President Joe Biden struggles with poor approval ratings and the highest inflation in decades raises prices across the nation.

The Associated Press called the Republican race for Schmitt at 9 p.m. Schmitt defeated Greitens a day after former President Donald Trump issued a late dual endorsement of “ERIC,” a split decision between the two candidates that allowed the former president to claim credit if either won.

Northland voters

Updated 6:55 p.m. While Vincent Karpierz, 66, of Avondale, wasn’t comfortable sharing who he voted for, he did want to encourage others to get out and vote whenever they have the opportunity.

The retired electrician said he always tries to make it to the polls, adding that to him, every election is as important as the last. This year he was one of the last to cast a ballot at the Avondale United Methodist Church before polls closed at 7 p.m.

“If you want change or anything, don’t complain if you don’t vote,” he said, later adding with a chuckle, “Still complain if you vote.”

Joanna Simmons, 50, said she’s missed very few elections, but it felt especially important this year to come out to the Avondale United Methodist Church to vote.

Her biggest hope is to see a change in the senate.

“I have no voice, so I’m hoping to change it,” she said, adding that as a woman post-Roe, she’d like to see some of her rights returned.

Simmons said she is also ashamed to be represented by Sen. Josh Hawley, who recently became a meme after he was seen running from the Jan. 6 mob.

“It used to be Kansas was the embarrassing side to be on, and now I don’t tell people I’m from Missouri,” she said.

When it came to the U.S. senate race, when she saw former marine Lucas Kunce was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, it made the decision “a no-brainer.”

“But overall I don’t have much hope for us to turn that seat in Missouri,” Simmons added.

Voters in Raytown cast ballots

Updated 6 p.m. “We just feel that representing the younger generation is important,” Morgan Lenhardt, 27, said after casting her vote at Raytown Central Middle School alongside her husband, Joshua Lenhardt.

Morgan Lenhardt said they both have conservative, Christian values and they feel the Republican Party upholds those beliefs for the most part. But as a manager at work, she encourages everyone to come out and vote, regardless of whether their ideologies align with her own.

“The right to vote wasn’t always around for everybody, so it’s just really important that we were given that right, and people fought for that right,” she said.

For Morgan Lenhardt, the race between Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens was a close one. After much research, Greitens won her vote in part because of his military background. She is a former Army medic.

She and her husband hope to have children soon, and she said having lawmakers who align with their education values is important to them. She hopes Greitens would keep children from being exposed to topics she and her husband don’t feel is appropriate for them.

“The world today is just a really scary place to be and I’d like to see that get turned around. I want to be proud to be here … I am proud to be an American, but I want that to reflect our values as well,” she said. “It’s just a scary economy, it’s a scary world right now and I’d like to see that back on the right track.”

Polls in Missouri and Kansas close at 7 p.m., but voters in line at 7 p.m. will still be able to cast their ballots.

Lee’s Summit voters

Updated 4 p.m. The heat index was 107 degrees as Jefferson Donald, 52, left his polling place at Lee’s Summit North High School on NE Douglas Street.

Taking refuge in the shade of the trees with his wife after casting their votes, the video editor said while he doesn’t have high hopes for many blue wins at the state level, he was excited to cast a vote for Megan Marshall for the Jackson County Legislature to represent District 3 At-Large, nodding to her work on the Lee’s Summit Board of Education.

As for the U.S. senate race, Donald, a Democrat, said while he doesn’t except them to ultimately win, he’s glad to see Democrats on the ballot competing.

“I don’t have high hopes that we are actually going to change anything, unfortunately,” Donald said, adding that he thinks Eric Schmitt or “one of the hardcore conservative Republicans” will ultimately win the open U.S. senate seat.

Before returning to the shade of his car, Donald said he wished there was a greater turnout for the primaries. At 3 pm, there was a slow trickle of voters out of the school, though it picked up as the afternoon went on.

“I still feel it’s my job, my obligation to vote just because of the past, and African Americans having died for that right to vote, so I think it’s important,” he said.

Jennifer Hampton, 43, who is self-employed, said while she and her husband, Jason Hampton, 47, an office specialist manager, always try to make it out to the polls, she felt even more obligated to make time to vote after Roe v. Wade was overturned. They encouraged their two adult daughters to do the same.

“I really feel like as a country we’re kind of at a point where we’re moving backwards,” she said outside her polling place at Lee’s Summit North High School. “I think progression is key. We need to vote accordingly.”

Hampton said this year there wasn’t anyone she was eager to vote for, but there were a few people she was eager to vote against.

“I tend to not vote for anyone that Trump endorses,” Jason Hampton said, referencing the former president’s decision to endorse “ERIC,” on Monday, causing confusion in a race where both Republican front runners are named Eric.

Jennifer Hampton said they’re not watching any Missouri races too closely, but they’re keeping an eye on Kansas.

She said the Roe decision hit close to home. She’s a woman with three daughters and she’s in an interracial marriage.

“If (Roe) was overturned, how safe is LGBT(Q) marriage … and even how safe is our marriage?” she asked. “How far back are we going to go?”

“We’re just trying to make it not a Christian nationalism country,” Jason Hampton added.

Hoping for a safer city

Updated 3:29 p.m. Married couple Natheen and Adrian Whitley live only a block away from Central High School, where they cast a ballots Tuesday. They’re trying hard to leave the neighborhood.

“We look at all these big beautiful houses in the area and they let them get run down. And there’s so many people out here with no place to go. Someone needs to do something,” Natheen Whitley said.

While the couple weren’t thrilled with any of the candidates, they hope their votes go to people who can help make the city a safer place.

Adrian Whitley said that neighborhood shootings have led to bullets flying through their home and shattering their windows.

“It’s not safe here. That’s why we’re trying to move,” he said.

He also said he didn’t think the state should put more restrictions on abortion. When Natheen explained that abortion had been banned in Missouri even in cases of rape or incest, Adrian was shocked.

“Really? But that’s their body? No, that’s not right,” he said. “I don’t think you should be making decisions like that about someone else’s body.”

Voter concerns about Missouri LGBTQ legislation

Hannah Black, 32, voting at First Church of Nazarene 11811 State Line Rd., in Kansas City, said recent bills in Missouri’s state legislature targeting LGBTQ students have made her feel “less of a person.”

Black is bisexual and the mother of a 2-year-old-son. She said she hopes her vote will be a reminder that her voice matters.

Though school is some time in the future for her child, the idea that if she had married a woman, he would be limited in what he could say about his parents is an awful thought for Black, she said.

Few arrive at Union Station early Tuesday for curbside voting

Updated 1 p.m. Not many people showed up to cast ballots curbside in the rear lot of Union Station, where the Kansas City Election Board offered drive-up service for those who have been exposed to COVID.

About 12:45 p.m., nearly three hours after the site opened, only two voters waited in their cars for someone to assist them. The location is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

In the 2020 election, high demand and some problems with equipment led to long lines at the location.

Focusing on local races

Updated 11:30 a.m. At the Robert J. Mohart Multi-Purpose Center, 3211 Flora Ave., 71-year-old Carletta Collins said it seems like all the murders in Kansas City happen within six blocks of her 34th and Prospect Avenue neighborhood.

She came out to vote Tuesday hoping to make the community a better place.

“I’m a kid of the 60s. I always vote... If we don’t come out, we can’t say anything which way or the other. At least I’m trying.”

Collins said she focuses the most on the local races. Whenever she can cast a vote on issues in her school district or to elect a judge in her community, it feels like she’s creating change.

Voters motivated by Senate race in Missouri

‘A future as a unified city’

Updated 8:41 a.m. Andrew Tasch, 54, of Kansas City, said he believes it’s always important to come to the polls. But over the last few years, he said, the country has been on a dark path, making the act of casting a ballot in a heated primary more important than ever.

“We have to secure a better future,” he said. “I think there are some very strong candidates, Lucas Kunce and Trudy Valentine, obviously they’re the loudest voices but they also have a lot of really good things to say.”

Tasch, who drives an Uber, said he hopes the expansion of the KC Streetcar will help unify the city. He said he hopes people will educate themselves before coming to the polls and not just listen to talking points.

“It’s not just us vs. them, whether you’re in Brookside or you’re east of Troost . . . We need to look more toward a future as a unified city.”

Photo ID at the polls

Updated 8:33 a.m. Voters must bring a form of ID that satisfies Missouri’s voter ID laws.

It is important to note that Missouri’s new voter ID law that the governor recently signed does not affect this election. It does not go into effect until the general election in November. So, the ID laws for this election are the same as they’ve been for the past few elections.

Types of voter ID accepted at the polls include a driver’s license, state voter ID card, passport and others listed here.

Voters arrive at polls in Kansas City

Updated 8:07 a.m. At All Souls Church, 4501 Walnut Street in Kansas City, Missouri voters arrived after the polls opened at 6 a.m., many already sweating as the temperature climbed to 80 degrees.

Claire Cason, 27, was not in a rush after submitting her vote. She loitered outside the church to snap a quick picture of her “I Voted” sticker to share with friends.

“I feel like our generation, compared to our parents’ generation, is a lot more willing to share their opinion,” she said under a blue mask.

“These issues are so pressing, so personal and we know they’re going to affect us for a long time.”

Cason said she was excited to vote for Toder, one of the Democrats vying for Missouri’s U.S Senate seat. She had met him at a Sunday rally for the Missouri Abortion Fund, where she was selling handmade bracelets with the words “Pro-Choice” beaded on the front. The bracelets raised about $500, she said. And while she’s more focused on the outcome of the vote on abortion rights in Kansas, she’s not holding her breath it will go her way.

“There’s so much going on in our country that’s really discouraging. If I can have a say and encourage others to do the same, that’s our duty as Americans.”

Curbside voting at Union Station

Updated 7:47 a.m. The Kansas City Election Board reminded voters Tuesday morning that drive-up, curbside voting will be available at Union Station, in the rear parking lot, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Other primaries on the ballot

In Missouri’s 4th District, which stretches from the Kansas City metropolitan area to the central part of the state, the Republican primary to succeed Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the U.S. House is crowded.

The race includes state Sen. Rick Brattin, cattle farmer Kalena Bruce, former FOX4 anchor Mark Alford, former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks, former St. Louis Blues player Jim Campbell, retired police officer William Irwin and entrepreneur Kyle LaBrue.

Voters will also decide between two Republicans who are competing to succeed state Auditor Nicole Galloway — Missouri’s lone Democratic statewide officeholder, who is not running for reelection.

Republican state Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in 2018 before winning election in 2020, is running against state Rep. David Gregory, a St. Louis Republican, in the Aug. 2 GOP primary.

The Republican nominee will face former state Rep. Alan Green, who is the only Democrat in the race.

Get ready to vote with our Missouri voter guide

As you get ready to head to the polls, make sure you know what is on your primary ballot with our Missouri voter guide. It includes details on what candidates are running and where they stand on issues. This free tool is informed by questions submitted by Star readers like you.