A Madison County official has split the GOP. Is he St. Louis’ Trump?

Some hate him. Others don’t know him. But not Kristi Hickam. She admires the controversial Republican chairman of Madison County.

Hickam, a 45-year-old Granite City native who led anti-mask and anti-vaccine mandate protests during the pandemic, calls him a gracious man of faith and a political game-changer, much like former President Donald Trump.

“It’s kind of how Trump got elected,” said Hickam, who helps run Illinois Freedom Fighters, a Christian activist group. “People were tired of everyday, regular career politicians.”

Prenzler, 66, is unquestionably popular in Madison County. His corruption-fighting reputation won him more than half the vote in 2016 and 2020, and many voters still love him now. At the same time, his brand of government — populist, anti-mandate, stridently anti-establishment — has divided the GOP here, even leading to what some describe as chaos in the halls of the county building.

But it may be a window into the future of the Republican Party across the country. This same divide, between establishment Republicans and Trump-inspired, Make-America-Great-Again candidates, has manifested at all levels of government nationwide.

“Donald Trump activated that anti-establishment Republican fever more so than anything we saw before,” said Gunner Ramer, political director for the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump organization that tracks Republican voter sentiment. “When you give an example of a changing Republican Party at the local level, I say looking at that nationwide, that is exactly what’s happened.”

It is happening in Missouri, too: The Missouri Statehouse faced a quagmire in the spring session because of a fight between GOP leaders and a conservative faction within the party. In April, a slew of Branson officials were forced out amid COVID-19 policy backlash. And in St. Louis County, Katherine Pinner, a Republican candidate unknown to party officials, beat an establishment candidate to win the nomination for county executive. Pinner, too, espoused anti-vaccination rhetoric, and won in a landslide.

In Madison County, the divide has left government disrupted.

Prenzler’s critics point out that, since he was elected, the county has gone through at least 10 department heads, not counting interim hires. At least four employees appointed by Prenzler ended up suing the county, leading to $2.2 million in settlements and fees so far, with more lawsuits pending. Relationships with fellow Republicans got so bad that a bipartisan group of board members voted last month to remove most of Prenzler’s power to hire and fire people.

And yet the electorate still loves Prenzler, who plans to run for reelection in 2024.

“I never, ever wanted to create a Republican machine,” Prenzler said. “I will have the support of the people.”

Republicans take hold

Democrats had been in charge for decades before 2016.

Prenzler by then had served six years as the county treasurer, where he uncovered bid-rigging in county tax-sale auctions, catapulting him to popularity.

But in 2016, he and other GOP candidates together rode the same nationwide conservative wave that elected Trump, who won 55% of the vote in Madison County that year and in 2020.

The status quo in Madison County exploded almost overnight. Short, rhythmic meetings to rubber-stamp deals made behind the scenes ballooned into three-hour ordeals marked by lengthy discussions and tense sparring with the chairman.

The chaos wasn’t only happening out in the open, said Madison County Treasurer Chris Slusser, a known critic of Prenzler. The new chairman cleared house and appointed new department heads. That initial wave of appointments was the first sign of chaos, Slusser said.

Prenzler appointed Douglas Hulme to the county administrator job. It’s a powerful role that comes with the chairman’s ear and oversight of day-to-day county operations. Prenzler also appointed Rob Dorman to direct the information technology department, ousting a longtime county IT staffer.

A county corruption task force accused Dorman and Hulme of spying on employees’ computer usage for political gain, and Hulme of offering a county job in exchange for a political appointment, among other accusations. The Illinois attorney general’s office never charged the men, but the county board wanted Prenzler to get rid of them.

He didn’t. So the board did.

The men sued Madison County over their firings. Their two lawsuits remained pending as of mid-August along with another brought by a county highway department engineer Prenzler fired. The county settled two other wrongful termination suits county board members blame on Prenzler.

Prenzler said the lawsuits weren’t his fault because he had no control over the employees’ actions.

“I think it’s unfair to lay that at my feet,” Prenzler said.

‘How dare he?’

Soon, Prenzler began attacking his Republican colleagues.

One vehicle: His occasional newsletter, which now reaches nearly 3,500 readers, he said. He uses it to champion causes — opposing COVID vaccination mandates and library story times hosted by drag queens, for instance — to target county board members who cross him, and to rally his base.

In one July edition, a Prenzler supporter called on readers to attend the meeting where board members stripped the chairman of his powers. Hundreds packed the board room, where the maximum capacity is 200.

“It tears at my heart as I discover more and more the Republican Party nation-wide is being filled with greedy, power grabbing politicians,” Sarah Daniel wrote. “Kurt Prenzler is a good man. He is bold, and firm and will stand strong to do the right thing. Much like Trump he will not back down against the evil forces against him.”

At the same time, Prenzler was backing candidates to run against sitting Republicans.

Earlier this year, he sent out a letter supporting one in the June 28 primary election.

The letter criticized Republican board member Denise Wiehardt of Granite City for being unmarried. Her opponent, the letter said, was “what a woman should be; married to her husband.”

Wiehardt defeated her opponent, and blasted Prenzler.

“How dare he decide what a ‘real woman’ should be?” said Wiehardt, who is divorced, and works as a regional program manager for the St. Louis Crisis Nursery, an emergency care center for children.

Prenzler apologized to Wiehardt at a county board meeting.

But board members had seen enough.

“That was the last straw for a lot of people,” said Madison County Circuit Clerk Tom McRae.

Staying force

Last month, 19 board members voted to remove Prenzler’s ability to hire and fire department heads. Only six voted against it. On Wednesday, board members moved 18-6 to appoint a temporary chairman, Granite City Republican Eric Foster, to take on the position’s responsibilities for the rest of Prenzler’s term.

Still, Prenzler has a slate of candidates on their way to victory in November’s General Election. Four establishment Republican county board members, including Foster, lost primaries to Prenzler-backed candidates.

Paul Nicolussi of Collinsville was a Prenzler pick and uncontested in his primary. With no Democratic opponent on the November ballot, he’s set to take the place of a longtime Democrat who’s retiring.

Nicolussi, who works at a compressed gas refinery in Sauget and also runs a personal training business, gained a following during the COVID-19 pandemic for fighting school mask mandates.

The conservative caucus will be in the minority, Nicolussi said. But they’ll be a thorn in the side of longstanding Republicans.

“The biggest problem is the Republican establishment type. They don’t talk about issues,” Nicolussi said. “We need to talk about why we get elected — to serve the voters.”

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify accusations against Douglas Hulme and Rob Dorman, and correct the name of Jerry's Cafeteria.