{"id":162292,"date":"2026-09-04T09:28:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/04\/nominee-charged-with-plotting-to-plant-cocaine-on-his-primary-opponent\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T09:28:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:28:52","slug":"nominee-charged-with-plotting-to-plant-cocaine-on-his-primary-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/04\/nominee-charged-with-plotting-to-plant-cocaine-on-his-primary-opponent\/","title":{"rendered":"Nominee Charged With Plotting To Plant Cocaine On His Primary Opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Christopher Ross is the Republican nominee for a state House district in Missouri. He beat Louise Secker in the August 4 primary by a mere 32 votes. Then, on September 2, he was charged<\/a> with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and amphetamine under 21 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and 846.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s theory, per the FBI agent\u2019s sworn affidavit<\/a>, is that back in June, Ross handed his campaign manager a black nylon glove containing a baggie of cocaine and a couple of capsules from his own prescription of Adderall, and asked the manager to put it in Secker\u2019s purse or her car. Campaign managers really do get asked to do all the thankless tasks, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

According to the feds, Ross followed up on this request over the next three months. And, unfortunately for his case, the government says he did this in text messages employing what he seems to have believed was code.<\/p>\n

The code was \u201cthe substance of the matter.\u201d Not exactly Enigma.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe need to resolve that situation sooner than later,..June 9th she will be at the republican women meeting at granny shaffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping that we could make it happen before THIS Thursday\u2026which would be extreme egg on the face given Thursdays nights event\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I didn\u2019t know what Granny Shaffer\u2019s even was, but apparently it\u2019s a staple of the local scene. Or at least it was\u2026 it closed in July after 53 years<\/a>. No wonder Ross was in a hurry! <\/p>\n

Checked in from his mid-campaign vacation, Ross wrote: \u201cHope you all are having success knocking doors and getting the substance of the matter sorted this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a June 21 thread, Ross again asked about the \u201csubstance of the matter\u201d and the campaign manager reported that he was still looking for an opening. Ross replied with some actual campaign talk and then pivoted:<\/p>\n

\n

ROSS: A good time would have been while signs were going up\u2026.she would have been a ways away from an unlocked car<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Missouri seems like such a nice place, where you can leave your car unlocked and not have to worry about it getting stolen or a rival campaign planting cocaine on you. <\/p>\n

The complaint also notes that the campaign manager bought a two-gram cannabis vape off Ross for $40 at the campaign office and spotted several more \u201cinside of a small ammunition container.\u201d There\u2019s something so amazingly Republican about dealing drugs out of an ammo box believing gun accessories qualify as sacrosanct. <\/p>\n

As for the political fallout, under Missouri\u2019s candidate withdrawal statute<\/a>, the deadline to leave the race has passed. All that\u2019s left is subsection 2, which requires a court order from the circuit court in the county of his residence \u2014 available only if the ballots cost nothing extra to reprint or the candidate pays for it himself \u2014 and only \u201cupon application by the candidate.\u201d That deadline is 5 p.m. on September 8. His hearing is September 9.<\/p>\n

Missouri GOP officials have publicly asked<\/a> Ross to withdraw, but it doesn\u2019t seem like he has yet. <\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Nominee Charged With Plotting To Plant Cocaine On His Primary Opponent<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Thomas Christopher Ross is the Republican nominee for a state House district in Missouri. He beat Louise Secker in the August 4 primary by a mere 32 votes. Then, on September 2, he was charged<\/a> with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and amphetamine under 21 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and 846.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s theory, per the FBI agent\u2019s sworn affidavit<\/a>, is that back in June, Ross handed his campaign manager a black nylon glove containing a baggie of cocaine and a couple of capsules from his own prescription of Adderall, and asked the manager to put it in Secker\u2019s purse or her car. Campaign managers really do get asked to do all the thankless tasks, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

According to the feds, Ross followed up on this request over the next three months. And, unfortunately for his case, the government says he did this in text messages employing what he seems to have believed was code.<\/p>\n

The code was \u201cthe substance of the matter.\u201d Not exactly Enigma.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe need to resolve that situation sooner than later,..June 9th she will be at the republican women meeting at granny shaffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping that we could make it happen before THIS Thursday\u2026which would be extreme egg on the face given Thursdays nights event\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I didn\u2019t know what Granny Shaffer\u2019s even was, but apparently it\u2019s a staple of the local scene. Or at least it was\u2026 it closed in July after 53 years<\/a>. No wonder Ross was in a hurry! <\/p>\n

Checked in from his mid-campaign vacation, Ross wrote: \u201cHope you all are having success knocking doors and getting the substance of the matter sorted this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a June 21 thread, Ross again asked about the \u201csubstance of the matter\u201d and the campaign manager reported that he was still looking for an opening. Ross replied with some actual campaign talk and then pivoted:<\/p>\n

\n

ROSS: A good time would have been while signs were going up\u2026.she would have been a ways away from an unlocked car<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Missouri seems like such a nice place, where you can leave your car unlocked and not have to worry about it getting stolen or a rival campaign planting cocaine on you. <\/p>\n

The complaint also notes that the campaign manager bought a two-gram cannabis vape off Ross for $40 at the campaign office and spotted several more \u201cinside of a small ammunition container.\u201d There\u2019s something so amazingly Republican about dealing drugs out of an ammo box believing gun accessories qualify as sacrosanct. <\/p>\n

As for the political fallout, under Missouri\u2019s candidate withdrawal statute<\/a>, the deadline to leave the race has passed. All that\u2019s left is subsection 2, which requires a court order from the circuit court in the county of his residence \u2014 available only if the ballots cost nothing extra to reprint or the candidate pays for it himself \u2014 and only \u201cupon application by the candidate.\u201d That deadline is 5 p.m. on September 8. His hearing is September 9.<\/p>\n

Missouri GOP officials have publicly asked<\/a> Ross to withdraw, but it doesn\u2019t seem like he has yet. <\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Christopher Ross is the Republican nominee for a state House district in Missouri. He beat Louise Secker in the August 4 primary by a mere 32 votes. Then, on September 2, he was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and amphetamine under 21 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and 846. The government\u2019s theory, per the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Headshot-300x200-ytYE6T.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}