Bill Eigel's reputation as a far-right firebrand in the Missouri Senate hasn't gained him many friends in the state capitol. Along with the rest of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, he's even the reason major Republican priorities haven't passed.
But in his run for governor, he hasn't shied away from that label.
"The reason that I'm asking folks to consider my candidacy is for exactly what you said, I am the disrupter in Jefferson City," Eigel told KCUR's Up To Date. "We're not going to shrink government down, make it more efficient and reform all this broken government by having more nice guys or good cops go down to Jefferson City and plead and compromise with the special interests that are suffocating our state right now."
"We absolutely need somebody that's going to go down there, look 'em right in the eye and tell them that which they don't hear enough: no."
Nine Republicans, five Democrats and one Libertarian are running to replace Gov. Mike Parson, who is term-limited, in the the primary race for Missouri governor. Up To Date is interviewing several of the major candidates ahead of the November election.
Eigel, who was elected to the state Senate in 2016, was previously considered unlikely to win the Republican primary for governor, but polls now show a tighter race.
In a conversation with Up To Date, Eigel talked about his stances on some the biggest issues facing Missourians. Here are some key excerpts, edited for length.
Interview Highlights
On deporting undocumented immigrants
Eigel's platform includes a plan to deport all undocumented immigrants from the state of Missouri. He says he'll declare an invasion of the state to empower law enforcement to take action.
"We're gonna take them to the nearest port of entry for the United States. Every one of these ports of entry has federal agents that can then take these individuals into custody. Well, the closest port of entry here in the state of Missouri are our international airports. So that's where we can start, right? We can start doing that right now. And it actually isn't going to take a whole a whole bunch of extra facilities is not going to take a whole bunch of extra movement just to get start moving folks to our federal authorities.
Now, if Donald Trump is the president, then I think that's that's probably going to be a system that's going to work very well from January onward. If Donald Trump is not the president, well, that's probably going to be a little bit more of a situation that we're not only have to get to take them to the port of entries here in Missouri, we may have to start moving them across the country, in which case, I'm going to have to engage with some of the other governors around the state (sic). And we're going to call on the legislature to pass laws in the state of Missouri just like the state of Louisiana did."
On cutting taxes and government spending
Eigel proposes eliminating state income and personal property taxes.
"Let's first talk about personal property tax. Personal property tax — every personal property tax collected by every citizen in the state is about $1.7 billion a year. So I'm confident that we can reduce dramatically the size of that government in Jefferson City to accommodate that $52 billion budget, which has increased by $25 billion just over the past five years.
My commitment is we're going to cut that budget and use general revenue surpluses to keep the local areas whole when they're no longer getting personal property tax."
As for how he'll slash the budget: "I don't know that there's anything we don't cut."
Eliminating waste in Missouri's Medicaid program, slashing the number of state employees and abolishing the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are among his priorities.
On abortion
Like his opponents, Eigel supports the near-total abortion ban currently in place in Missouri.
"Missouri is a pro-life state. We have been a pro-life state, sending the biggest supermajorities of Republicans in state history to enact some of the most the most restrictive abortion controls ever enacted.
And on August 7... I'm going to bring this party together — you asked me earlier how I'm going to unite the party — I'm going to unite the party of this state, the Republican Party, under the idea that Missouri is going to remain a pro-life state.
In fact, this wouldn't even be a problem if one of my opponents, Jay Ashcroft, would reject that initiative petition from the ballot in the first place. It's got multiple subjects, it doesn't have an accurate fiscal note. Under Section 116.120, Jay Ashcroft should have rejected this ballot measure from the ballot months ago."
He claimed abortion harms women as well as children — citing higher risk of suicide and mental health. Studies in the U.S. and Finland have supported that risk, but the validity of those results has been questioned.
Listen to Eigel's full conversation with Up To Date — including his views on funding a stadium for the Chiefs and Royals, local control of the Kansas City Police Department and whether Eric Devalkaenere should be pardoned — above or on your favorite podcast app.
