CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The political career of former Corpus Christi mayor Dan McQueen apparently isn't over.
The Kansas City Starreports that McQueen filed paperwork Monday with the Federal Election Commission to seek a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri. McQueen would run as a Republican.
His filing employed two addresses: a post office box in Jefferson City, Missouri, and another for a banquet hall in Corpus Christi owned by McQueen, the Star reports.
When contacted by the Star, McQueen initially would not confirm he is running. But he later sent the newspaper a text message 40 minutes later where he described himself as recently retired and promised future news. He did not say, however, he would be running in Missouri.
"Stand by," McQueen texted the newspaper.
In an email received by the Star on Tuesday morning, McQueen gave an overview of his career, which included service in the Navy and time working as an engineer for Boeing. He said that he was “working Black Hawks for the Army when I got involved in trying to help Corpus.”
Despite most recently living in Texas, McQueen described himself as a Missourian and touted his connections to the state in a story that was also picked up by the Yahoo news aggregation service.
In 2016, McQueen easily defeated incumbent mayor Nelda Martinez, but resigned after serving only 37 days.
In that election, McQueen built his mayoral credentials based on his engineering education. He claimed to have a bachelor’s of science in electrical engineering, but KRIS 6 Investigates could not find any records to support that claim.
KRIS 6 Investigates contacted Florida State University officials, asking if they had any degree records for an Eldon Daniel McQueen with the same birth date as the former mayor. Florida State has no record of McQueen attending, according to information provided to 6 Investigates.
On the same day, KRIS reported that McQueen and his chief of staff, Shari Douglas, shared a home address from 2012 until McQueen was elected. At that time, Douglas changed her address to a post office box.
Douglas told KRIS that she and McQueen were simply “good friends.” But McQueen’s estranged son and his former campaign treasurer confirmed that McQueen and Douglas were romantically involved. Corpus Christi’s employment policy forbids city employees from hiring domestic partners without first disclosing their relationship and obtaining approval from the city manager.
The next day, Douglas resigned as McQueen’s chief of staff.
And on the following day, KRIS 6 Investigates reported discrepancies in McQueen’s business career. After campaigning on his strong business background, information proved otherwise. KRIS reported that McQueen had been sued in 2007 for breaking a lease in a San Antonio shopping center where he was renting space for a karate school. At the time, McQueen owed $25,000 on a lien for the property.
McQueen resigned from the mayoral job in January 2017.
McQueen most recently ran for the Congress seeking the seat of U.S. Rep Joaquin Castro in 2020, but dropped out several months before the Republican primary date.
Before that, he ran for mayor of Corpus Christi in 2018, but failed to make the runoff in an election eventually won by then-incumbent Joe McComb.
McQueen would be entering a crowded GOP primary race to succeed the retiring incumbent Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. Among the early candidates include former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and current Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
