Mark McCloskey, who waved gun at protesters, garners just 3 percent of GOP Senate primary vote

Mark McCloskey, who became infamous in 2020 for waving a rifle at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched near his front lawn in St. Louis, lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri on Tuesday night.

McCloskey won just 3 percent of the vote, according to results from The Associated Press, while Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt earned 45 percent of the vote to clinch the GOP nomination.

Polls had showed McCloskey was running far behind his opponents headed into election day.

McCloskey, an attorney, brandished an assault-style rifle while standing outside his home with his wife Patricia McCloskey, also a lawyer, during the 2020 summer protests against police brutality that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn.

The couple became a symbol of the culture war in America, drawing praise at the time from former President Trump and conservatives who argued Mark McCloskey was defending his home, but also condemnation from the left who said he threatened peaceful protesters.

The McCloskeys pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment over the incident, but were later pardoned by Missouri’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson.

A Missouri panel also filed an ethics complaint against the couple to suspend their law licenses, which the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on in February.

The court, calling the couple’s crimes a “moral turpitude,” sanctioned the McCloskeys and ordered them to complete 100 hours of pro-bono work. They were also ordered to a one-year probationary period, which if violated could result in an indefinite suspension of their law licenses.

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The U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected an appeal from the couple, who argued the ruling violated their Second Amendment right to defend themselves in their own home.

In May 2021, Mark McCloskey announced his bid for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat to replace retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

At the time, he said Missourians were seeking a candidate like him who would fight back against the “cancel culture mobs.”