Five candidates are running in the Republican primary for Missouri's 6th Congressional District on August 4, 2026. Two have led in media attention: Chris Stigall (R) and Nathan Willett (R). Incumbent Sam Graves (R) is retiring from public office.
Missouri Independent's Jason Hanccock wrote that the election "could become a proxy war between Trumpworld and Jeff Roe’s political universe."
Roe is a political consultant, former chief of staff to Graves, and founder of the Republican political firm Axiom Strategies. In 2024, Roe supported Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-Fla.) presidential bid. According to reporting by Politico's Daniel Lippman, President Donald Trump (R) and his advisers "told down-ballot Republican candidates not to hire Republican strategist Jeff Roe or his political consulting firm after Roe worked to elect Ron DeSantis."
Roe has not commented publicly on the race, though Willett has referenced him in campaign releases. After Graves endorsed Stigall, Willett said in a post on X, "For 26 years Congressman Sam Graves has represented North Missouri. He and his anti-Trump (Jeff Roe) political consultant are trying to hand pick the next person to come after him for the next 26 years." Stigall has said that he was unaware of Graves' retirement and said, "I didn’t know anything about him even leaving his seat until — what was it, a week ago? I knew a couple of days before he made it public that he was going to retire ... But I was not privy to it."
Stigall is a radio host and former field representative for Graves. He has campaigned on his experience in broadcasting, saying it will prepare him to communicate with constituents: "[A]fter 25 years of being behind a microphone, talking about the issues, doing battle, communicating with politicians, understanding and studying the ways of Washington — I thought the effort needs better communicators ... So I’m going to head to DC, and I hope to communicate with people a little bit better about what I see and what’s going on and how to better voice their concerns." Stigall is also running on agricultural issues, and his campaign website says he supports "President Trump's efforts to expand market access, strengthen domestic food production, and reduce burdensome regulations that hurt family farms." Graves and U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) endorsed Stigall.
Willett is a member of the Kansas City City Council. He is running on supporting the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and his campaign website says he "supported ICE deportation and voted against woke legislation that tried to stop the ICE detention center in Kansas City."[8] Willett is also campaigning as an outsider and criticized Graves' endorsement of Stigall, saying, "As conservatives, we don’t believe in rigging elections — [Graves] tried to with his last minute retirement announcement but I am giving the voters a choice. The people of North Missouri should decide their next Congressman — not the DC swamp."[3] The Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Willett's campaign.
Jim Ingram (R), Cody Oshel (R), and Nathanael Schultz (R) are also running.
Missouri redrew its congressional districts ahead of the 2026 elections. Under newly drawn lines, the 6th Congressional District would have voted for Donald Trump in 2024 by a 27 percentage-point margin, down from 39 percentage points under the old lines. To read more about redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections, click here.
This is one of 58 open races for the U.S. House of Representatives this year in which an incumbent is not running for re-election. Across the country, 22 Democrats and 36 Republicans are not running for re-election. In 2024, 45 incumbents — 24 Democrats and 21 Republicans — did not seek re-election.
