Missouri's Primary Is on the Horizon

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

Missouri's primary election, the election that will determine each party's nominees for the general election in November, will occur three weeks from yesterday on August 2nd.  The big news in the "show-me" state centers around the retirement of Republican two-term US Senator Roy Blunt.   Ol' Roy, whose wife and four adult children are all full-time lobbyists in Washington, DC, has made no secret of his eagerness to get on over to K Street and begin making even more money based on his extensive political connections in the US House and Senate.

The race in Missouri to replace Blunt has drawn almost no attention from national Democrats who assume that the seat will automatically go to a Republican.  Nevertheless, eleven Democrats are on the party's primary ballot seeking the nod to run for the Senate as a Democrat in November.  The two major Democratic candidates are Lucas Kunce, a former marine who has never held political office, and Trudy Busch Valentine, a beer heiress out of St. Louis who seems to be running out of some "obligation" to pay back the state that has given her so much.  

Kunce, an outspoken progressive, is running a campaign fueled on small, personal donations and does not accept PAC or corporate donations.  At this point he has raised more money that any candidate in either party.  He is vowing to end the filibuster and to fight to codify Roe v Wade  into federal law.

While Busch Valentine also supports abortion rights, her campaign is far more subdued than that of Kunce.  Busch Valentine is campaigning on her history of public service as a nurse, and enjoys sharing family photos on Twitter.    Trudy Busch Valentine has declined to debate Lucas Kunce.

The Republicans will have twenty-one candidates in the GOP Senate primary.  Two of the twenty-one are currently serving in the House of Representative, which also opens up two House seats in Missouri.  GOP polling results so far are not consistent, but the three leaders appear to be former Governor Eric Greitens, State Attorney General Eric Schmitt, and Congresswoman Vickie Hartzler.

Greitens was forced to resign less that two years into his single term as governor after it was revealed that he had been involved in an affair with his hairdresser, and that he had duct-taped the woman, naked, to exercise equipment and then taken photos to keep her from ever going public about the affair.  He is currently being accused by his estranged wife of spousal and child abuse.

Attorney General Schmitt has received substantial bad press within the state for neglecting his duties and filing a series of frivolous lawsuits related to immigration and abortion to keep his name in the news.

Congresswoman Hartzler is campaigning as a Trump acolyte, though the former President does not support her candidacy.  She is being supported by Missouri's other US Senator, Josh Hawley, who is campaigning with her.

As a further complication to the crowded race, former Missouri Senator John C. Danforth has pledged $5 million in support of Independent candidate John Wood, a former attorney with the January 6th Select Committee, and Danforth is attempting to raise an additional $20 million for Woods' campaign.  Danforth, an heir to the Ralston-Purina fortune, helped to foist Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Senator Josh Hawley onto America, and he is now expressing concerns about both of those individuals - and calls Hawley the "worst mistake" of his life.

Right now the Missouri Senate race is about as clear as mud, but in three weeks we will have a lot better idea of where things are headed.  Maybe at that point the national Democratic Party will wake up and realize that they could pick up a Senate seat from the show-me state.   One must hope that they are that politically astute.

Missouri Democrats send lots of money to the national party.   It's certainly time that some of it was brought home to work for our state candidates!