Mound City Messenger

Who is Funding Steve Butz’s State Senate Campaign?

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Graphic created with image from votestevebutz.com

State Representative Steve Butz is running to replace Karla May as State Senator representing the 4th District, which includes much of western St. Louis City and some of the near suburbs. Karla May can’t run for reelection according to Missouri law. State Senators can only serve two four-year terms.

A great way to know about a politician’s priorities is to look into who is funding their campaign. This gives you information about who wants them to win and to whom they will feel beholden if victorious. That is why I went through all the Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) reports from 2025 and 2026 for two Political Action Committees (PAC) that are supporting Butz’ campaign: The Committee to Elect Steve Butz and Butz STL PAC. There may be other organizations raising money to support the Butz campaign, but these are readily identifiable. I have compiled the information from both PACs into a spreadsheet. To help readers interpret the donor information, I have added a “Donor Interest” column. This is my best effort to categorize donors, and it is not an exact science. Individuals and PACs may have multiple motivations for their actions and multiple potential classifications, or motivations not accounted for by a donor’s profession. The final column is labeled “Research on Group / Person” and contains some basic information about the group. Other information on the spreadsheet comes directly from the MEC reports.

So which interests are bankrolling Steve Butz’ campaign? There are several main categories of donors.

Insurance Industry

Steve Butz is an insurance agent, and the insurance industry is, by far, the largest category of donors to his campaign – over $65,000. A large amount of this comes from his own company – Crawford-Butz & Associates – but even more comes from other sources. His reports show donors representing insurance companies such as Travelers, Shelter, State Farm, Centene, Valley Insurance Agency Alliance, and UnitedHealthcare. This is in addition to donations from industry groups such as the Missouri Association of Insurance Agents, the Missouri Insurance Coalition, and the Missouri Health Plan Association.

Charter School and School Voucher Advocates

Steve Butz has long been an advocate for charter schools and school vouchers, projects whose resources inevitably come at the expense of public schools. In 2024, Butz was one of three Democrats to vote in favor of Senate Bill 727, which expanded a state credit program for private school tuition and also expanded charter schools to Columbia, MO. As the bill only passed by a single vote, his vote could be considered the deciding vote in the House.

Billboard promoting Steve Butz for State Senate District 4, endorsed by St. Louis Firefighters, with a vote deadline of August 4.
Photo by Michael Berg

Missouri Charter School Action has given close to $10,000 to Butz’s campaign, and charter school and voucher advocate billionaire Rex Sinquefeld has given even more money to Butz. Butz’ largest donation – $25,000 – comes from the Civic Impact Coalition – a dark money group associated with the pro-charter school advocacy group Opportunity Trusts. The nonprofit has filed little publicly available paperwork, making it impossible to identify the donors funding the organization. Their lack of filings with MEC also makes it difficult to identify other funding recipients, while their Missouri incorporation paperwork identifies Cynthia Brinkley as the organization’s incorporator. Ms. Brinkley currently serves as an Ameren board member. Prior to joining Ameren’s board, Brinkley served as president and chief operating officer for Centene, the large medical insurance company headquartered in Clayton. Brinkley previously served as a vice president at General Motors and in various leadership roles at AT&T. 

Firefighters

The International Association of Firefighters Local #73, the International Firefighters PAC, and the St. Louis Association of Retired Firefighters have all given large donations to Butz.

Law Enforcement

In 2025, Steve Butz was one of a small number of House Democrats who voted for House Bill 495, which took away local control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, citing the wishes of organizations representing police officers. The new Governor-appointed police commission has now approved large raises for police officers, which will trigger large raises for firefighters also, all without the consent of the Board of Aldermen and at the expense of other city priorities. 

Exterior view of the St. Louis Police Officers Association building with a sign above that reads 'ST. LOUIS POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION ST. LOUIS' FINEST'. In front, there are campaign signs for Steve Butz and Tony Kirchner.
Photo by Michael Berg

Police organizations are also giving large amounts of money to Butz’ Senate campaign. Law Enforcement for Good Government, an explicitly anti-local control for St. Louis police PAC – donated $10,000 to his campaign. This organization is funded by a $1,000,000 contribution from Mike Rayner, who has also given massively to pro-police candidates such as Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Republican St. Charles County Council Candidate Jason Law. Rayner is part of the family that owns the agribusiness firm Cargill, Inc.

Other major organizations representing police that made large donations to his campaign include the St. Louis Police Officers Association and POL PAC. Butz also received donations from former St. Louis County Police Chief Timothy Fitch, as well as Governor Kehoe-appointed St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Commission Chair Chris Saracino, who has the position because of the legislation that Butz helped pass in 2025.

Pro-Israel Donors

This legislative session, Steve Butz was one of only two Democratic co-sponsors of House Bill 2061, which significantly limits the right to criticize Israel in Missouri public schools by codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. As was the case with issues of charter schools and local control of St. Louis police, Butz voted with the Republican majority for the bill, in contrast to the vast majority of his Democratic House colleagues. 

The Missouri Alliance Network endorsed Butz and donated $2000 to his campaign. He also received $1000 from Michael Ellenhorn, who is the largest donor to the Missouri Alliance Network (MAN), and $2000 from the WPG Group, which is the PAC for Lobbyist David Winton, who represents the Jewish Federation of St. Louis in the Missouri Capitol. The Federation and MAN were two of the main organizations lobbying in support of House Bill 2061. They were joined by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, which has direct ties to the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

At a recent 1st Ward meeting, I asked Rep. Butz about Israel’s recently passed law mandating the death penalty for many Palestinians if they kill Jewish Israelis, while retaining a prohibition against ever applying the death penalty to Jewish Israelis, no matter what they do. When asked directly more than once, Butz refused to call this law racist. According to the IHRA definition of antisemitism that Butz helped codify into Missouri law, it is antisemitic to refer to the State of Israel as a “racist endeavor”.

Tobacco

Butz received a $1000 donation from Cheyenne Int’l LLC, a North Carolina tobacco product manufacturer. Butz has also received three donations worth $2250 from the mysterious Missouri First PAC (not to be confused with three other Missouri First PACs), whose Treasurer is Lindsay Roepe, who was also the Deputy Treasurer for Republican John “Jay” Ashcroft’s unsuccessful run for Missouri Governor in 2024. This PAC received much of its money from tobacco giant Altria (formerly Phillip Morris), as well as various other businesses, such as the landfill company Republic Services and GQ Holdings.

Beer and Spirits

Anheuser Busch’s A Better Missouri PAC has given $3600 to Butz. He also received $1000 from the Missouri Beer Wholesaler Association and $1000 from alcohol distributor Breakthru Beverage. The distributors’ Southwest Ave location is represented by Teamsters. They are currently on strike.

Marijuana

The Missouri Cannabis Trade PAC gave Butz’ campaign $2400.

Building Trades, Construction, and Real Estate

General contractors, construction companies, and unions that work in the building trades have given over $13,000 to Steve Butz, with the largest donations coming from the Building Communities PAC and the International Union of Operating Engineers. Many individual realtors have given to Butz, as has the St. Louis Association of Realtors PAC.

Anesthesia

Butz has received $6650 from several PACs backing the interests of those in the field of anesthesiology.

Nursing Homes

Butz’s campaign has received $12750 from nursing homes and senior living affiliate PACs through Hampton Manor of Wentzville, MO DSV PAC, Shamrock PAC, and Americare.

Ameren

Ameren and affiliated PACs have given several thousand dollars to Butz’s campaign.

Ignoring the pleas of environmental organizations and consumer protection organizations, Butz voted for Senate Bill 4 in 2025. Ameren heavily lobbied for the passage of Senate Bill 4, a bill that, among many other provisions, ended Missouri’s ban on Cost of Work in Progress (CWIP) financing for new power plants. CWIP was passed in 1976 by a citizen voter initiative and provided protections to ratepayers so they did not have to shoulder the risks of expensive projects such as new nuclear plant construction.

Lobbyists

The top contract lobbyist firms in Jefferson City all gave Butz four figure donations to his Senate campaign. Firms led by former Speaker of the House Steve Tilley, along with firms led by Andy Arnold, Ryan Rowden, Richard Aubuchon, and David Winton all made substantial contributions. So did the high-powered lobbying firms of Clarkston Nelson and Armstrong Teasdale. (This article is helpful for interpreting some of the PAC names).You can be assured that if Butz wins, the door to his Senate office will be open to these lobbyists when they come knocking.

Individuals

Notable individual donors to Steve Butz’s Senate campaign include:

Michael Berg

Michael Berg is a member of St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace and the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee. He used to be a baker at with the Black Bear Bakery, which produced the world’s best food item, the chocolate oat bar.