PERRYVILLE, Missouri — Tensions ran high at a Republican county campaign event in Perryville, Missouri, on Friday night, when two GOP candidates running for statewide office squared off in a heated 45-second confrontation.
State Senator Denny Hoskins (R-Warrensburg), a primary candidate competing for the party nomination to run for Secretary of State, took issue with something the current Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft allegedly said to his wife after delivering a stump speech at the Perry County Lincoln Day Dinner.
Ashcroft, who is running for governor in the GOP primary contest, appears next to Hoskins in a short video that was published online and widely circulated on Saturday morning.
According to Hoskins, state representative Adam Schwadron (R-St. Charles), one of his competitors in the GOP primary race for Secretary of State "recorded the incident on his phone and sent it to his campaign and the media to try to embarrass me."
"I will never be embarrassed about sticking up for my wife," Hoskins said. "I've had several people send me Schwadron's video so I wanted to let you know what happened."
In a statement, Ashcroft's campaign denies Hoskins' accusations.
"I neither insulted his wife nor pointed at her," Ashcroft said. "Senator Hoskins' outburst is concerning but I understand how stressful a campaign can be and I'm willing to let bygones be bygones."
In the video, the two men briefly appear to disagree about the role of the Secretary of State's office and its oversight of local libraries, though most of the remarks included Hoskins swearing at Ashcroft and challenging his manners and manhood.
Hoskins approached Ashcroft and asked, "You got something to say to me?"
"The truth hurts," Ashcroft replied.
"Yeah, to my wife," Hoskins said.
"No, because she was just looking at him and I just responded," Ashcroft replied.
"Whatever," Hoskins said. "She was looking at you when you walked by? You're a chicken [expletive]. You are a chicken [expletive]."
"As you wish," Ashcroft nodded.
"Yes, I know you. I know. You're a chicken [expletive]. You got something to say, be man enough to say it to me," Hoskins said.
"I have said it to you," Ashcroft said.
"No, no you haven't," Hoskins shot back.
"I have said it to you," Ashcroft reiterated. "I've said that the Secretary of State doesn't control libraries."
"You're a chicken [expletive]," Hoskins interjected. "Chicken [expletive]. You're a chicken [expletive]. If I went up to your wife and cussed her out, if went up to your wife and said something to her, you'd probably just fall over onto your knees and [expletive] be a coward. You're a [expletive] coward. You're a [expletive] coward."
Reached by phone Saturday morning, Hoskins gave his account of the moments that led up to the confrontation.
"When he walked off the stage, once he got done, and my wife was sitting about three feet from me and just sitting there, he came up to her and put a finger in her face and barked off something at her," Hoskins said. "I said, 'What? What did he just do?' And she said, 'Well, yeah, he put his finger my face and barked at me like, 'The truth hurts, doesn't it,' or, 'You can't handle the truth.'"
"And I'm like, 'Why?' Like, Jay and I aren't even running for the same thing. And so then I just went and confronted him in the back, like any husband would when some other man gets in his wife's face and barks off something at him."
Hoskins said his stance over the Secretary of State's role pertaining to materials in local libraries remains unchanged after the spat.
"I've always said that, 'Hey, I would defund any public library that has that X-rated,'" Hoskins said. "And maybe he doesn't believe that he can do that. But some of the public library funding comes under the Secretary of State's office."
"Compared to the overall budget, it is a small amount," he said. "But I can guarantee that if the Secretary of State would withhold those dollars from any public library that had that X-rated material, they would definitely feel it."
Several local school libraries in Missouri removed hundreds of books from their shelves in 2022 when state legislators enacted a new law imposing fines or potential criminal prosecution on librarians who would curate sexually explicit materials on their bookshelves.
