‘Always packing heat’: After Trump shot, KC-area candidates vow to keep public events

Will Scharf has made his work as a lawyer for former President Donald Trump a centerpiece of his campaign for Missouri attorney general. The day after a would-be assassin shot Trump in the ear, Scharf was courting voters in public.

“I’ve been getting death threats almost everyday since I first went public with my representation of President Trump and I don’t expect that to change any time soon,” Scharf told The Star at a Jackson County Republican Party ice cream social in Kansas City.

Scharf added that he knew the risks but that the work is vital to protecting Trump and “safeguarding our constitutional system.”

Kansas City-area candidates assessed their security arrangements on Sunday in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania. Numerous candidates continued campaigning in public amid bipartisan condemnation of the violence and promises to tone down heated rhetoric.

The Secret Service killed the shooter soon after he opened fire. Law enforcement officials have released no information about a possible motive – or to suggest he didn’t act alone.

Campaigns who spoke to The Star signaled they plan to move forward with public campaigning ahead of the Aug. 6 primary election. They emphasized that meeting with voters is crucial and vowed the attack wouldn’t curtail a core element of running for office.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican running for governor, in a statement made clear he plans to continue public interactions. Ashcroft added that he was grateful Trump was safe and he said his “heart goes out” to everyone affected by the shooting.

“I do not intend to limit my interaction with Missourians and will continue to travel the state. If we let incidents like this stop us, evil wins,” Ashcroft said.

The campaign of Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican running for governor, has “security contingencies in place” to provide protection and allow Kehoe to interact with Missourians safely, spokesperson Gabby Picard said in a statement. Picard promised the campaign will continue to travel across the state and meet with residents.

“We believe it’s more important now than ever that we come together as Americans and not let this heinous act of violence against President Trump and his supporters threaten the freedoms that so many have fought to defend,” Picard said.

Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican running for governor, will continue meeting voters across the state, his campaign said. Spokesperson Sophia Shore noted that Eigel would attend the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee. The Trump campaign has said it plans to move forward with the convention as usual.

“Our campaign team is always packing heat and anyone who wishes us harm has another thing coming,” Shore said in a statement.

The attack left many Americans – politicians included – shaken and wondering whether the shooting would lead to more violence. While Trump is the first current or former president wounded in an attack since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, Saturday’s shooting came amid a period of violence and attempted violence against political figures.

Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot in 2011, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana was shot in 2017, a kidnapping plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was foiled in 2020 and a mob of Trump supporters erected a gallows during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The shooting came just before the Republican National Convention , the party’s highest-profile gathering – and just weeks before the August primary elections.

“I think there are those questions that candidates are going to have to deal with, whether it’s scaling back, whether it’s changing venues,” Matt Harris, a political scientist at Park University said.

Harris said that while the shooting, which represented a significant security failure, was shocking, the violence itself wasn’t given the amount of political violence over the past decade.

“This specific event might raise some flags in terms of security and stuff like that but I think to a certain extent par for the course in terms of the era that we’re in,” Harris said.

David Kensinger, a longtime Republican consultant and lobbyist in Kansas, said campaigns in the state are among the most intimate in the country, relying on personal interactions. Close, in-person campaigning – sometimes called retail politics, is too effective and too valuable to abandon, he said.

“Heaven forbid if something were to happen to a candidate here that might cause some reassessments, but short of that I don’t think it will change much at all,” Kensinger wrote in an email. “You can’t keep good candidates from talking with the customers.”