Senator Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Springs, has begun an exploratory gubernatorial campaign for the 2024 election and shared some of his points of view on May 19 at Deb’s Barn in Owensville.

The two-term GOP legislator from St. Charles County spoke about being focused on Missouri first in the last six minutes of his speech.

“The importance of leadership — leaders describing what that better version of tomorrow looks like — are coming up as a choice that we are going to have to make,” Eigel said. “It is going to be another, what I call ‘Darth Vader’ moment in 2024 where we, as a state, are going to have to decide what kind of state we want?”

Eigel asked the few in the audience, “Do we want to be a big red state doing big red things? Or do we want to be a big red state doing big blue things?”

He asked what a future successful Missouri would look like.

“A state where we are cutting personal property tax,” Eigel said, answering his own question. “It’s not just that I want to save you money, folks. I mean, I do want to save you money, but I think there is a moral imperative that you shouldn’t pay rent on your vehicle ever December 1 to the government for the crime of owning a car.

“By the way, most states have already gotten rid of personal property taxes. So this isn’t a new concept — 29 of 50 states have already gotten rid of personal property tax. Why can’t our super majorities make that leap and step into that better version of tomorrow?”

Eigel also wants to prevent foreign nations from purchasing Missouri farmland.

“I want to protect our farmland,” Eigel said. “You know, not too far from here in Cape Girardeau, the World Economic Forum has started its first chapter that is designed to try to gain control of farmland by pushing climate change policies and reducing the amount of farm-able acres we have in our state. They did this over in the Netherlands, they’re doing this in Canada and now they want to do it here in Missouri.

“That is why I want a bill that would prohibit all foreign entities from buying Missouri land. Not just China and Russia. Everybody knows about them. But any foreign entity is a national security issue because nobody cares about our food supply more than we do. If somebody is going to own Missouri it ought to be Missourians or at least Americans.”

Eigel said he is the only potential gubernatorial candidate talking about limiting the purchase of land by foreign entities.

“I don’t think we should sell Missouri to a foreign country,” Eigel said. “I think that is something that we should fight for.”

Next, Eigel mentioned education reform, but primarily focused on cutting the state’s $51 billion dollar budget.

“That seems like a big number,” he said. “To put that in perspective,  we grew in state revenue last year by $2 billion, just in growth, in new revenues. We could have gotten rid of every personal property tax bill in the state and still had $300 million left over and yet we didn’t do it.  And now we are more dependent on the federal government to pay our bills than New York, California, and Illinois.”

Election integrity and doing away with ballot counting machines was Eigel’s final point.

“Who here trusts the machine in our elections?” He asked to a room full of people who shook their heads and said no. “I carried out Senate Bill 98 this year which if (the bill) made it to the governor’s desk and was signed would get rid of every machine in every precinct in the state and we would go back to hand counting the ballots like we’ve done for 200 years.”

Eigel claims the legislature in Jefferson City would never vote to ban ballot counting machines.

“Those kinds of big reforms consistently get waylaid and derailed because the status quo is so powerful in Jefferson City,” Eigel claimed. “We call it the swamp right? But it’s really the powerful status quo. The teacher’s unions, the chamber of commerce, and the business special interest groups are trying to get your power, that your donating on a temporary basis, to work for them, and not you. When that happens, it’s not about democrats winning. It’s about the swamp winning. If we don’t change course next year and pick somebody who is willing to fight for this thing, to be the warrior and tell the special interests groups that which they don’t hear enough of ‚— which is no, then we are always going to be turning on our TV and looking at other states that are prospering.”

Eigel said if the people of Missouri don’t choose the right candidate to lead them, the cost is very real.