Categories: News

The US Senate Race Is Heating up in Missouri – Opinion

With Missouri’s primary election just over four months away and the filing deadline March 29th, things are heating up, most notably in the US Senate race. Scott Sifton and Lucas Kunce are the top two Democrat contenders. However, most attention is on the Republican primary. The race for Roy Blunt’s seat in the Missouri Senate race is a tight one. Missouri is arguably a red state right now, as all of its elected offices are held by Republicans. Six of eight Congressional seats are held by Republicans and both Senate seats are held by Republicans.

On Saturday, the latest Missouri Scout/Remington Research poll came out and showed Missouri’s Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, taking the lead, edging out former Governor Eric Greitens, with Schmitt at 24 percent and Greitens at 21 percent.

RealClearPolitics reported that the Missouri Scout poll released in February 2022 showed Schmitt at 22 per cent and Greitens, at 25 per cent. Presumably, that shift was due, at least in part, to the news that broke last week regarding the domestic abuse allegations made by Greitens’ ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, in an affidavit filed with the court in their ongoing custody battle. (The MoScout Poll.

After the news broke about the allegations, the most recent poll took place March 22-23. It included questions regarding the allegations and asked respondents what they thought.

32 percent of respondents found the allegations disqualifying, 23 percent indicated they didn’t believe them, 19 percent found them troubling but not disqualifying, while 16 percent were unsure what they think of them, and 10 percent were unaware of them.

Comparing both polls, Schmitt climbed by two points while Greitens fell by four. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, who moved up from 18 to 19 percent in the interim, gained one point. Congressman Billy Long, however, moved up from eight to nine percent.

Coming on the heels of the recent Trafalgar Group poll showing both Schmitt and Hartzler handily besting their likely Democrat opponents (Kunce and Sifton), while leaving Greitens in a virtual tie with them, this is an obvious boost to Schmitt’s campaign.

(I’d share a tweet from Hartzler’s campaign but sadly, she remains suspended from Twitter for speaking out in defense of women’s sports.)

The extent to which the allegations against Greitens stick and drag him down will be a bit clearer once additional polls come out — the most recent Republican primary poll from Trafalgar, conducted February 22-24 (before the allegations broke), showed Greitens at 31 percent, Schmitt at 23 percent, and Hartzler at 17 percent. No, we shouldn’t put You can alsoAlthough polls are often taken too seriously, trends may offer some insights.

Schmitt is the leader in fundraising among other GOP candidates. Schmitt held $2.4 million worth of receipts and $1.2 million in cash as of December 31, 2021. Hartzler came in second place with $1.9 millions of receipts and $1.7 Million on hand. Greitens came in third with nearly $1.5 million in receipts, but only $290,000.  State Senate President protempoore Dave Schatz was the highest-ranking candidate, with over $1.1million in receipts.

The Missouri Times reports that as of January 31st:

Attorney General Eric Schmitt brought in nearly $1.7 million, between his U.S. Senate campaign and PAC, in the latest fundraising cycle.

According to his first sharing of his fundraising report with The Missouri Times. Schmitt finished the cycle with $1.27million in cash remaining in his campaign account. Save Missouri Values PAC is Schmitt’s supporter in his bid to the U.S. Senate. They reported having more than $2.41 Million cash.

Schmitt was able to raise approximately $457,000 in this cycle. The PAC raised more than $1.2million.

That could be impacted, however, by “super PACS with deep pockets.”  Per the Southeast Missourian:

Federal Election Commission reports show that through December, Greitens had raised $1.5 million — nearly $1 million less than Schmitt and $444,000 less than Hartzler. Greitens’ cash balance was less than $300,000, as compared to Schmitt’s $1.27 million and Hartzler’s $1.8million.

Greitens has the support of two super PACs, one with big pockets. Missouri First Action PAC donated almost $1.1 million to the cause, most of it coming from Bernie Marcus (co-founder of Home Depot). Nearly all that money was not spent as of December 31. Dick Uihlein (a billionaire shipping supplies magnate) has donated $2.5 million to Team PAC, a separate pro-Greitens super PAC.

Look for the money to start being spent now that we’re entering the thick of Primary Season. We’ll be following the race closely here at RedState.

This post was last modified on March 28, 2022 1:20 pm

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Pluralist
4 years ago

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