GOP showdown in the 7th: Who's running for southwest Missouri's open U.S. House seat?

Southwest Missouri will have a new representative in Congress after next year's election. Barring any late additions to the field, it will be one of half a dozen Republicans.

Rep. Billy Long, a Republican who has held the seat since 2011, is running for U.S. Senate — leaving his position in the House open for the taking. Missouri's 7th district encompasses Jasper, Newton, McDonald, Lawrence, Barry, Polk, Greene, Christian, Taney Counties, and a small portion of Webster County. It's a dark red district (Long won almost 70 percent of the vote in 2020), a composition unlikely to significantly change when district lines are redrawn with new census data.

A number of Republican candidates have already emerged to vie for the GOP nomination. No Democrats have announced their candidacy. The winner will serve a two-year term in the U.S. House, joining the other seven members of Missouri's delegation.

Here are the candidates competing to represent the 7th District in the U.S. House next year:

Dr. Sam Alexander

Calling himself the "political outsider" of the field, emergency physician Dr. Sam Alexander is seeking elected office for the first time since 2004.

A longtime employee of CoxHealth, Alexander criticized "career politicians" in an October interview with the News-Leader and said if elected, he would use his experience in the medical field and on his family's farm to hear from a range of constituents. A group of 35 southwest Missouri physicians wrote an open letter to colleagues Friday asking them to support Alexander in the primary.

U.S. House District 7 election: Dr. Sam Alexander, ER physician and ally of Gov. Mike Parson, formally joins race

Though Alexander has never held elected office, he has been involved in Missouri politics for years. Gov. Mike Parson, who Alexander ran against in his first state House race, appointed Alexander to the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts in 2019. He's also served on Parson's advisory board for MO HealthNet, the state's Medicaid program, and said he has advised the governor on medical issues, as well as donating to his inauguration.

Alexander has contracted the consulting firm Victory Enterprises, according to filings with the Federal Elections Commission. His campaign had $120,147.10 on hand as of Sept. 30 (though Alexander loaned himself $90,000 on Sept. 29, according to campaign filings, driving up that number).

Alex Bryant

Alex Bryant, who launched his campaign in mid-February, is a conservative pastor and the founder of his own ministry.

He painted the current political landscape in his candidacy's announcement as a "culture war," arguing that "there is an outright attack on our conservative family values." Originally from Illinois and a graduate of Evangel University, Bryant, who is Black, is centering his platform on his religious background and experiences.

He and his ministry have garnered a significant social media following, amassing over 50,000 followers on Facebook, due in part to a viral video he and his family filmed that focused on "peace and unity."

Eric Burlison

State Sen. Eric Burlison, a Battlefield Republican, tax consultant and investment adviser, is hoping to make the jump from Missouri politics to the national scene.

Burlison was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2018, previously serving seven years in the House. He currently represents part of Greene County and Christian County in the chamber, and is a member of the Senate Conservative Caucus — a subsect of Republicans in the chamber who have taken hardline stances on issues such as abortion and vaccine mandates, at times butting heads with party leadership and the governor.

U.S. House District 7 election: State Sen. Eric Burlison jumps into race

While in the higher chamber, Burlison has been one of the most vocal advocates for the Second Amendment Preservation Act, a law passed in Missouri this year that effectively nullifies some federal gun laws and fines police who enforce them. Earlier this year, he pushed to reintroduce "right-to-work" legislation, which bans unions from requiring membership and was rejected by 67 percent of voters in 2018. He's also been a proponent of making it more difficult for voter-led petitions to end up on the ballot.

He's earned early conservative endorsements, including those of FreedomWorks, the House Freedom Fund and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Burlison recently announced Jeff Layman, an alumnus of former Gov. Eric Greitens and Billy Long's campaigns, as campaign chairman; he has also contracted consultant Axiom Strategies.

Mike Moon

State Sen. Mike Moon, like Burlison is attempting to transition from Jefferson City to Capitol Hill, as the cattle rancher and Sunday school teacher seeks the Republican nomination.

Moon spent several years in the Missouri House before winning a Senate seat in 2020, representing parts of Barry, Lawrence, McDonald, Stone and Taney counties. In the year since joining the upper chamber he's been a vocal part of the Senate Conservative Caucus, urging the Republican supermajority to defund Planned Parenthood, ban critical race theory (although it is not taught in K-12 schools) and prioritize "election integrity." He's also been a vocal opponent of vaccine mandates, attending a Springfield protest outside Mercy Hospital in August.

U.S. House District 7 election: State Sen. Mike Moon announces run

The Ash Grove lawmaker picked up national notoriety in 2017 when he posted a video on social media decapitating a chicken while urging former Gov. Eric Greitens to take stronger action against abortion providers. In the online ad announcing his candidacy, Moon said if elected he would represent constituents rather than lobbyists or "party bosses" — a mindset he recently brought to the Missouri Senate floor, where he and other members of the Conservative Caucus feuded with party leadership on the rules and traditions of the chamber.

2022 elections: Who's running for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat?

Audrey Richards

The only woman to file candidacy documents for the race thus far, Audrey Richards is hoping to carve out her own path forward in the primary field.

A Joplin native and graduate of George Washington University, Richards has never held elected office but has spent time in Washington, working for the federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency for six years.

Her platform is a far cry from the rest of the Republican field — more akin to the typical progressive Democrat than a member of the GOP. She frequently reposts critiques of both Republicans and the Biden administration on Twitter, and is focused on education funding and stronger support for rural communities.

Richards, running with the slogan of "Rural. Republican. Relentless," maintains that her ideology and candidacy are not limited to one party. She ran as an independent write-in candidate in 2020, garnering 1,279 votes, according to Ballotpedia.

Jay Wasson

After working as a state lawmaker and mayor, Jay Wasson now is running for Congress.

Wasson hadn't originally planned to campaign for the seat, he told the News-Leader in September, but said recent spending proposals from Democratic leadership in Washington frustrated him and prompted him to enter the race. He served as the mayor of Nixa for five years before being elected to six terms in Jefferson City — four in the House and two in the Senate. He also serves on the governing board for Missouri State University.

U.S. House District 7 election: Former Nixa mayor, state senator Jay Wasson enters race

As a lawmaker, Wasson focused on funding education and balancing state budgets, a policy he pledged to keep if elected to Congress. He said he would push for a "balanced budget amendment" that only allowed Congress to spend as much money as revenue gathered during any given year. In his announcement ad, he also touched on popular Republican talking points, criticizing the Biden administration's immigration policy along with critical race theory.

Paul Walker

A retired Army colonel, political science instructor and author is also part of the Republican primary field.

Paul Walker, a Springfield resident and Missouri State University alumnus, told the News-Leader that his goal in running was to "fight the Woke Left and help continue the policies of our party leader, Donald Trump."

"Ronald Reagan once said, 'freedom was just one generation away from extinction," Walker said. "I'm not going to let that happen."

Walker is the author of several books on U.S. history, including "Truman's Dilemma: Invasion or the Bomb" and "Cavalry Battle That Saved the Union: Custer vs. Stuart at Gettysburg."

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

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Who's running for southwest Missouri's open U.S. House seat in 2022?