THE STATE OF MISSOURI: What A Tangled Second-String Trumpist Web They Weave-and-Whoof!

WAY TOO MANY WANNA-BEES  . . .THE NEOPHYTE NEOCONS ARE CANNIBALIZING EACH OTHER

Missouri’s open Senate race features a crowded cast of conservative characters. There's the self-described “farm girl,” the auctioneer on a bus tour, a state attorney general suing China, and the guy who stood on his lawn and pointed an AR-15 at protesters. Let's go the top of the pack first

Disgraced former governor is recast as MAGA warrior in Senate bid

By ALEX ISENSTADT

POLITICO

Then there’s the state’s disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens — and they all agree he must be stopped.

. . .Greitens is a formidable presence in the race, armed with a solid base, right-wing media savvy and a billionaire backer. But the scandal-plagued Greitens is also viewed by many Republicans — both nationally and in Missouri — as the candidate most likely to jeopardize a GOP-held Senate seat. With the Senate majority in sight in next year’s midterm elections, the prospect of blowing the opportunity weighs heavily on party minds.

“Heaven forbid Eric Greitens ever did get into the United States Senate,” said Gregg Keller, a Missouri political strategist who briefly served as an adviser to GOP Sen. Josh Hawley’s 2018 campaign.

Pointing to Greitens’ baggage — he resigned the governorship in 2018, midway through his first term, following allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman — many Missouri Republicans view him as an opportunist who has shamelessly recast himself as a MAGA warrior to revive his political career,

Greitens isn’t alone in his pursuit of Trump’s endorsement — the Republican Senate primary field is stocked with Trump supporters, several of whom have made pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago in recent months. But Greitens has surpassed them all in his attempts to curry favor with the former president. While his primary rivals have also embraced Trump’s disproven claims of a stolen election, Greitens is the only one who has repeatedly campaigned in Arizona, where he promoted the Republican-led “audit” of ballots in an attempt to decertify President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Greitens has also brought Trump World luminaries like Rudy Giuliani and former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to campaign for him in Missouri. He signed on numerous Trump associates to assist his bid, among them his national campaign chair Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., and Tony Fabrizio, a Trump pollster.

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Former Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon regularly invites Greitens to appear on his “War Room” podcast.

Looming awkwardly over the primary is Hawley, the state’s junior senator, whose relationship with Greitens has been strained in recent years. Hawley, then the state attorney general, investigated Greitens in 2018 over Greitens’ use of a charity’s donor list to solicit campaign funds, turning the findings over to a St. Louis prosecutor. Greitens was subsequently charged with computer tampering, though the charge was dropped as part of a deal with prosecutors to resign from office.

Earlier that year, Greitens had also been indicted on a charge of invasion of privacy after facing allegations that he took an unauthorized nude photo of his hairstylist while sexually assaulting her in his basement in 2015. Greitens admitted to engaging in an extramarital affair with the woman, but insisted the encounters were consensual. The charge was dropped for lack of evidence, though Missouri legislators convened a special committee and found the woman making the allegations to be credible, according to their report.

Greitens at the time blasted Hawley for being “better at press conferences than the law.”

While both Republicans have raised their national profiles championing Trump’s election fraud conspiracies, Hawley is the one who appears to be in closer touch with the former president.

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Hawley has so far declined to publicly take a stance on the primary in his home state, despite getting involved in other competitive Senate contests nationwide.

He has made endorsements in three competitive Republican elections, throwing his support behind Sean Parnell and Herschel Walker, the respective Trump picks in Pennsylvania and Georgia Senate primaries. Hawley has also endorsed J.D. Vance in Ohio.

> Hawley’s campaign consulting firm, OnMessage Inc., is working for Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the race. On Wednesday, she became the first candidate in the five-way Republican primary to purchase a television ad: a 30-second spot that alluded to Grietens’ sexual misconduct. . . .

> Other candidates campaigning for the seat include current Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Rep. Billy Long and Mark McCloskey, a lawyer who drew national attention last year after he and his wife were photographed pointing guns at anti-police protesters outside their St. Louis home.

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“To call it a clown show is an underestimation of the chaos, the pandering, the disingenuousness of the candidates,” said one longtime Missouri GOP activist.

“You cannot overestimate how bizarre this primary is shaping up to be. In that world, who says McCloskey can’t win?”