MO Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft met with election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s secretary of state met with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist, on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft confirmed he had met with a group of people that included Lindell about “election concerns and questions,” but did not provide further information on the substance of the meeting or its other participants. The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that Lindell was invited to the meeting, which occurred at Ashcroft’s office at the James C. Kirkpatrick Center, by the group of other attendees, and that Lindell had also met with “a couple of” state senators.

The meeting represents a willingness by Missouri’s top elections official, who is widely viewed as a potential candidate for governor in 2024, to engage with one of the top propagators in the U.S. of baseless conspiracies surrounding the 2020 presidential election.

Ashcroft, who said after that election that it was secure in Missouri, has previously pursued two cases of voter fraud in Missouri and has been an advocate for passing stricter election laws.

In November, he clashed with the U.S. Department of Justice when he barred it from sending election monitors to certain voting locations in a Missouri county, which had been flagged for possible disability law violations. Ashcroft said after the 2022 election that it went without any major issues in Missouri.

The secretary of state has previously appeared alongside Trump advisers and allies who have spread false information about the election. Ashcroft spoke at a September 2022 event hosted by the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles in St. Louis, displayed in promotional materials alongside former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, who have both faced criminal indictments.

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The meeting with Ashcroft marks a return to Missouri for Lindell, who emerged as an ally of former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election. He hosted a conference in Springfield last year touting conspiracy theories about how that election was decided improperly, and has been involved in a defamation lawsuit against a voting machine company.

The Star reported that Lindell said he was in Missouri to campaign for chair of the Republican National Committee.

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At his Missouri conference last year, Lindell continued to prop up his unfounded theories alongside a group of allies, including Bannon, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Ohio math teacher Douglas Frank, who rose to prominence spreading election conspiracies. Frank also gave a presentation in the Missouri State Capitol rotunda in early 2022.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.