Missouri is definitely a swing state, it is such a battleground that none of the presidential candidates would like to loose. And more than its eleven electoral votes, it is the history of this state that worries the two candidates. Missouri, since 1904 has always been carried by the winner till date, except (1956). Although, cities like Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia tend to support Sen.Obama, it is the small towns of Missouri that will decide the presidential candidates’ faith.
One such small town is Warrensburg, Mo., which has a population of approximately 20,000. Johnson County of which Warrensburg, Mo., is the county seat was won by Bush against Kerry in 2004 by 61-39 % of votes. In fact, Bush even carried this county in 2000 relatively easily. However, what’s interesting about Warrensburg, Mo., is that apart from being a small town with lots of churches and religious influence, it is closely attached with Knob Noster a town primarily based for the Whiteman Air-force Base (home of the B-2 bombers), thus bringing a lot of military votes too. And, where generally the Warrensburg natives and military votes tend to go for the Republican Party, the University of Central Missouri a full fledged State University in Warrensburg, Mo., tends to vote democrat with its faculty and students pitching for the progressives.
The issue of Pro-Life and Pro-Gun is so huge in this part of Missouri that even a lot of the local democratic candidates tend to support the two issues. What will be interesting to see in Missouri this year for the Presidential race is, if counties such as Johnson which have been traditionally red will turn blue? And, although the probability seems less likely, the factors that will make the difference is the higher margin of votes for Barack in small towns like Warrensburg, Mo., while huge voter turnouts in traditional democratic areas such as Kansas City, St. Louis and their suburbs. Race, is definitely an issue in Southern Missouri which also tends to be its Bible belt, also warnings by the KKK to Obama staffers has been an issue all along. In fact, Warrensburg, Mo., in recent days has had a lot of Obama yard signs theft.
As per the recent County Clerk reports 27,000 people have been registered in Johnson County, and it is believed that the county will have a turn out of at least 85% this year. Warrensburg, Mo., is much like what Sarah Palin would like to term Pro-America, however, the huge amount of voter registration on the University campus, as well as the organized ground plan by the Obama Campaign is something that is going to be testing this aspect.