Republican Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a candidate for the party’s nomination for governor, said his Jefferson City home was “swatted” on Sunday.
In a media release from his office, police stated they received an emergency call of a shooting at the residence. Ashcroft was at home with his wife and children when he was contacted by law enforcement by phone to determine the validity of the situation, according to the release.
Swatting describes a trend of unlawfully calling law enforcement and falsely reporting a violent situation at a private residence or office of a public official, often resulting in the response of a SWAT team. Recently, numerous Republican Georgia legislators, including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, were swatted. Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows also were recently swatted. Legislators are proposing harsher penalties for those convicted of swatting.
The swatting happened two days after Ashcroft posted on social media a possible move by secretaries of state to remove President Joe Biden from the Democratic presidential nomination ballots if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court to remove former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
“While I expect the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in and ensure the new legal standard for Donald Trump applies equally to Joe Biden,” Ashcroft posted on his campaign’s X account, formerly known as Twitter.
“I’m not in favor of going down this path,” Ashcroft was quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday. “But we will go down this path, it’s inevitable, if the Supreme Court does not stop this. … My job is to be the referee of the administration of elections, my job is not to put the thumb down on either side. The rules will be applied equally. I just hope they will not be the rules of Colorado and Maine.”
The statement from Ashcroft included a description of Sunday’s events at his home.
“It ended up with me walking out of my front door with my hands up with several armed police officers in front of my house,” Ashcroft said in the statement. “I’m so thankful the Jefferson City Police Department handled the situation with an extreme amount of professionalism and that no one was hurt. It is unfortunate their resources and manpower had to be used on a prank. I am hopeful those responsible for such childish, cowardice acts will be brought to justice.”
