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Candidate With Anti-gay Views Runs for Missouri House

 A candidate with openly anti-gay views is running for the Missouri House of Representatives.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 65-year-old Hardy Billington is the only Republican candidate campaigning to represent Poplar Bluff.

Billington has called legalizing same-sex marriage an "outrage." He bought a newspaper ad in 2012 in support of an effort to ban the mention of homosexuality in public schools.

Billington didn't return requests for comment.

His Democratic opponent, Robert Smith, says he signed up because he couldn't let Billington win office unopposed in November.

Smith is an assistant prosecutor in Butler County. He says he doesn't believe it's right "to discriminate against people because of who they are."

It's unclear if opposition to Billington's views will register in the deep-red district. Four-fifths of Butler County voters cast ballots for Donald Trump.