VIENNA — Former United States President Donald Trump won Maries County’s Republican Presidential Caucus last Saturday at the Vienna High School gym.

After securing the gym at the 10 a.m. deadline, the 58 participants sat in the bleachers and listened to Maries County Republican Party Chairman Andrew Barr’s opening remarks. The body then voted to proceed with the caucus with Barr as caucus chair and county party secretary Denise Davis as the caucus secretary.

Barr opened the floor for nominations for U.S. President. Those eligible for nomination were Trump, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and David Stuckenberg with the Texas Air National Guard.

Denise Wilkinson, who lives near Vienna, stood and motioned to nominate Trump and close the nominations.

“It’s time to put America first,” Wilkinson said after the caucus. “Our current administration isn’t doing that. We obviously have illegal immigrants coming in every day. Our citizens are at risk. America is being threatened with terrorists and folks coming from Venezuela with drugs, sex trafficking, all of that. It’s time that Americans step up and take America back. Make America great again.”

Barr asked for a vote. At first, the motion passed. Barr said nominations had closed. A few participants spoke up and said the vote was unclear and they thought the two items were separate. Barr backtracked and had the body vote separately to close nominations. All but five people voted to close the nominations, and the nomination process ended.

Keith Nisbett, who lives near St. James, was one of the people who voted against closing the nominations. He said that though he agrees with Republican principles, he wants members of the party to be careful in their methods to avoid alienation and bullying of people who disagree with them.

“If I could, I might have asked to address the people,” Nisbett said after the caucus. “Because these are good people. And there’s good people that go to the Democratic convention also. I disagree with them; I agree with these people a lot more. But we’ve made the opposition of the other side such a thing that we are so fired up about that we are losing a certain amount of the ability to approach it with dignity -- calling names and things like that. I would like us to return to the era in which we present our positions in a way that is honorable.”

After nominations for president, the participants made nominations to represent Maries County at the U.S. Congressional and state Republican conventions later this year. Although the caucus result pledged Maries County’s delegates to Trump, the result is not official until the delegates appear and vote at those conventions. The group chose Barr, county Vice Chair Debra Havens and county committee members Ray Schwartze and Kathy Amsinger as the delegates and alternate delegates to the conventions.

The last step in the caucus was voting on amendments to the 2024 Missouri Republican Party’s Draft Platform. The group reviewed 25 proposed amendments and passed all of them. The full draft of the platform is available on the state party’s website at missouri.gop/2024-platform.

Most of the amendment votes were unanimous with no more than one dissenting vote, except for one item. A handful of people voted against changing wording regarding the party’s goal of electing “a Republican president” to electing “former President Donald Trump.” Again, Nisbett was one of the few who voted in the minority.

“I think Mr. Trump has done some good things in policies,” he said after the caucus. “I’m not a strong supporter of Mr. Trump in that I don’t think he’s the best example of our attitude toward our neighbors.”

Before adjourning, Havens spoke to the crowd and encouraged them to encourage their neighbors to register to vote and engage in the political process. More participation in presidential elections can bring Maries County more delegates in future elections.

This year’s presidential preference caucuses mark the first in Missouri in several years after the General Assembly passed a bill last year to eliminate the state’s presidential primaries. Barr said that other than the “hiccup” that was the initial vote to close nominations, the caucus went well.

“We might have set a record: 57 minutes, 25 amendments,” he said.

Trump’s victory in Maries County contributed to his sweep of all 114 Missouri counties. Following the weekend’s results, Trump led Haley with 247 delegates to 43 delegates. More delegates were up for grabs in 16 states and one territory during yesterday’s Super Tuesday primaries, but results were unavailable at press time. A candidate needs 1,215 delegates to secure the presidential nomination. The party will officially choose its nominee at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.