Look at the numbers of the last election. In the Senate race, Kunce (who was actively advertising himself as a conservative running on the Dem ticket) would have needed every third party vote plus an additional 331,000 votes to beat Hawley. Why would the people here want conservative light when they can have the full thing?

Harris would have needed every third party vote plus an additional 508,000 votes. Again someone that was trying to win over the "moderate conservative" by partying with Republicans on stage in an awful attempt at "bipartisanship". Showcasing again people here don't want conservative light. Plus, as someone who worked with the public at the time and was constantly told people's political opinions when I didn't't want to know, they all saw her as a socialist/communist even with all the surrendering she did to the conservative party. Literally would have lost nothing in the public eye if she had gone full progressive instead of "moderate conservative".

The people I talk to who don't vote, even the ones that probably would have voted conservative if they did, don't have any faith in our current system representing them. These random people I worked with or dealt with at work who, as far as I'm aware, aren't terminally online want someone who would actually represent them. Internet libs can screech about leftists "purity testing", but that's how the average person works also. They don't like their options and know that Missouri has been red for 30 years, so why bother when the decision is made for them.