Build-a-Bear, Square founders back Republican secretary of state candidate
By Jack Suntrup
June 19, 2024
JEFFERSON CITY — A University City Republican began her campaign for Missouri secretary of state this week with help from two prominent business people with St. Louis ties.
Build-a-Bear founder Maxine Clark and Jim McKelvey, a St. Louis native who co-founded Square, now called Block, were among the hosts for a kick-off event Tuesday for Jamie Corley, at Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis.
Corley also gave her campaign $250,000, released a two-minute video and announced a digital ad buy.
The activity came less than two months before the Aug. 6 primary, where Corley will appear on the ballot alongside seven other Republicans vying for secretary of state.
Clark, the former Build-a-Bear CEO, has given to Democrats in the past and has also contributed to a campaign seeking to overturn Missouri’s near-total abortion ban at the ballot box on Nov. 5.
Last year, Corley launched a competing effort that also would’ve allowed more abortions in Missouri, but the plan was more restrictive than the one that could appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. Corley eventually suspended that campaign.
Corley’s video doesn’t mention her abortion-rights work, which could repel voters in a Republican primary.
In the video, she touts her Missouri roots, experience as an entrepreneur and support for local causes.
“I want to make a bigger impact to fight for conservative values,” Corley said. “Because I know first-hand what it’s like to live in a city dominated by the progressive left.”
When she lived in San Francisco, she continued, hypodermic needles littered the streets, the cost of living was out of control, and, “If you dialed 911, no one answered.”
“Now that I’m back home, I pledge to never allow that to happen here,” Corley said.
She also promised “fair elections.”
“Democrats want to stack the deck against President Trump. I stand firm on election security,” she said.
Corley faces Valentina Gomez of St. Louis, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller of Willard, state Sen. Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg, state Rep. Adam Schwadron of St. Charles, House Speaker Dean Plocher of Des Peres, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold, and Wentzville Municipal Judge Mike Carter, in the primary.
The winner will face the winner of the Democratic primary, between Monique Williams of St. Louis, state Rep. Barbara Phifer of Kirkwood and Haley Jacobson of St. Louis.
Libertarian Carl Herman Freese of Foristell is also running.
