Missouri State Auditor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nicole Galloway’s ally and advisor Patrick Lynn took a page out of the Hillary Clinton playbook this week when he referred to Governor Mike Parson as an “illiterate hillbilly” in a social media post that was reminiscent of Clinton’s infamous reference to Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
It was unclear from the post whether Lynn was referring to Governor Parson’s background as an Army veteran, sheriff, and farmer, his Party affiliation, or his commitment to straightforwardly answering questions from reporters on a daily basis while Galloway relies on heavily scripted Zoom calls from her basement.
Governor Parson was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2016 with 1,459,392 votes, winning nearly 53% of the electorate. Presumably, Galloway’s team believes that nearly 1.5 million Missourians are also “illiterate hillbillies.”
Lynn has been a top supporter and advisor to Galloway since her run for Boone County Treasurer nearly a decade ago, hosting cocktail fundraisers for her as far back as 2011. They even have family ties – Galloway is married to Lynn’s nephew. Lynn appeared as the pro-Galloway guest on “This Week In Missouri Politics” in September where he was introduced as a “family member to Nicole Galloway.”
Galloway has thus far declined to condemn Lynn’s discriminatory remarks or say on whether she believes 1.5 million of the citizens she supposedly represents as State Auditor are “illiterate hillbillies.”
“It’s no secret that Nicole Galloway tries to emulate Hillary Clinton at every turn, but hurling elitist disdain at a majority of the voters you seek to represent is never a good look,” said RGA Communications Director Amelia Chassé Alcivar. “If Nicole Galloway doesn’t step up and condemn this despicable and divisive rhetoric from her longtime advisor, Missourians can only presume that Mr. Lynn merely said out loud what Galloway thinks.”
