Although Republican parties in the individual states and territories are generally united behind President Donald Trump and his agenda, factionalism still exists among those who go to precinct and county caucuses and choose state chairmen and other officials.
These days, factions within the GOP range from MAGA Republicans (who rally behind the president), "Uber MAGA" Republicans (who frequently charge rivals with "not being MAGA enough" and brand them RINOs — Republicans In Name Only), and the not-as-conservative "Old Guard," which usually includes major donors to the party.
Against this backdrop, Missouri's former lieutenant governor, Peter Kinder, eight years after he left office, walked out of the past to win the state Republican chairmanship of the Show-Me State.
Kinder — who served 12 years as state senator, became the first Republican senate president in a half-century, and then served another dozen years in the state's second-highest office — won a 36-to-32 vote of the GOP state central committee over former state senator and 2024 gubernatorial hopeful Bill Eigel.
At 70, Kinder knows most of his fellow party activists on a first-name basis and is also known for rarely — if ever — saying a harsh word about any of them. In deciding to run for chair in December, the Cape Girardeau man told the Southeast Missourian his goal was to end factionalism within the party organization.
As for his own philosophy, Kinder told Newsmax: "I've been a Reaganite from the start."
Having finished his undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri and waiting to start law school, the young Kinder was elected one of the delegates for Ronald Reagan to the state GOP convention in 1976 — the year the Californian narrowly lost the presidential nomination to incumbent Gerald Ford.
"We called our state convention 'The Springfield Massacre' because Reagan won every delegate over Ford," he proudly recalled.
When then-Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., on whose campaigns Kinder had volunteered, called to urge him to vote for Ford, Kinder said, "I politely told him no, I was for Reagan."
As Kinder's political career moved on, he would inevitably cite his hero's devotion to greater freedom and smaller government as the reason he was in office. More recently, Kinder served as Missouri co-chair for Donald Trump in 2016.
To be a state party chair today is not what it was a quarter century ago. The Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court in 2010 empowered individuals and businesses to independently spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of candidates and thus be as powerful as any political party arm.
Moreover, state and national parties have been banned from so-called soft money (corporate contributions) since 2002, and the limits on individual donations to state and national parties are what they were two decades ago.
Kinder understands the challenges of fundraising for a contemporary state party leader and still believes he can put the Missouri GOP in fighting fiscal condition. He cited the example of Michigan's former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who came out of retirement at a time when major contributors were abandoning a party wrought with internecine warfare and brought them back.
"And they won Michigan for President Trump, took over the state House of Representatives, and nearly won a Senate seat," Kinder said. "Pete Hoekstra is a great model for any state chairman, and I plan on doing what he did here in Missouri."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.