In the final days before the Aug. 2 primary, an anti-Greitens super PAC is running television ads highlighting allegations of domestic violence against the disgraced former governor. Top Republican donors — including Pete Ricketts, the ultra-rich governor of Nebraska — are pouring money into the effort, hoping to strike a final blow to Greitens’ campaign. There are signs that the effort to weaken Greitens is working. Once seen as the frontrunner in the race, the former governor has sunk to third place in recent polls and been replaced at the front of the pack by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmidt. “What you’ve seen here is really a challenge to try to beat [Greitens] down,” said a Republican strategist involved in the Missouri Senate race. “Equal to what we’ve seen with Greitens collapsing in that 20-point or so range is Schmitt’s huge surge. And it’s that combination that has really changed the outcome of the race so far.” A survey released last week by The Hill and Emerson College showed Greitens running 17 points behind Schmitt and 5 points behind Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) in the primary. That’s a stunning turnaround from the same poll conducted in June that found Greitens ahead of Schmitt by 6 points. Greitens, who resigned as governor amid scandal just 1 1/2 years into his first term, has played down his recent campaign deficit, calling the investigations “bogus” and accusing opponents of pushing inaccurate evidence in an effort to weaken him. He also compared the attacks against him to those faced by former President Trump, calling the allegations false. “That’s what we’re hearing from a lot of people who have seen repeatedly the way President Trump has been falsely attacked, they’ve seen how I’ve been falsely attacked,” Greitens told reporters in Kansas City, Mo. on Monday. “Many of these grassroots patriots are standing up and much more determined to fight for me.” Of course, Greitens has been underrated in the past. Polling before his 2016 victory in the Missouri gubernatorial race showed a much tighter race between him and former state attorney general Chris Koster (D) than it actually was on Election Day. But Greitens, once a rising star in the Republican Party, has fallen from political grace in the years since he won the Missouri governor’s mansion. Shortly before his term as governor, he faced allegations that he had an affair with his hairdresser and threatened to blackmail her with nude photos he had taken of her if she revealed their relationship. Greitens has acknowledged the affair but has denied the racketeering charges. He later faced felony charges related to the alleged extortion scheme, as well as charges that he improperly obtained a donor list from a nonprofit he founded to use in his gubernatorial campaign. Greitens resigned in June 2018 as GOP leaders in the state legislature met to consider whether to pursue his impeachment. Criminal charges against Greitens have been dropped, and he has repeatedly said he is innocent. The latest blow to Greitens’ personal image came this spring when his ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, testified under oath that the former governor had assaulted her and their 3-year-old son. Those allegations were among the harshest in an effort to weaken Greitens’ momentum in the Senate race. Greitens’ personal and professional baggage has deeply worried Republicans in both Missouri and Washington, giving way to fears that his bid to succeed retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) would create an opening for Democrats to regain the seat in a state that has otherwise moved steadily in the GOP direction over the years. Senate Republicans also can’t afford to take any chances this year. While targeting a handful of vulnerable Democratic incumbents in states like Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, Democrats also have opportunities to flip Senate seats in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio, among other states. Whoever wins the Republican nomination next week will likely face either Lucas Kunce, a former Marine running as a progressive, or Trudy Busch Valentine, a philanthropist and Busch family beer heiress, in November. Missouri Republicans have been burned by controversial candidates in the past. The late former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) famously saw his political career fall apart in 2012 after he claimed that women’s bodies have a way of preventing pregnancies in cases of “statutory rape.” That remark ultimately helped scuttle his bid to oust former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and left him isolated from many top Republicans. Of course, there’s still one wild card in the race: Trump. The former president has not endorsed in the primary, though earlier this month he ruled out endorsing Hartzler, saying she doesn’t have “what it takes to take on radical left-wing Democrats.” Greitens has some influential allies on his side. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancee of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., serves as the national co-chair of Greitens’ Senate campaign, and the couple has continued to press Trump for his support ahead of the primary, despite Greitens’ recent statements. drop in the polls. But Greitens isn’t the only candidate seeking Trump’s support. Each of his top challengers — Schmitt, Hartzler and Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) — have courted the former president, hoping to win his support in the primary. Schmidt is the only candidate to hold a campaign fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida. A former Trump campaign aide, however, said the former president is unlikely to endorse the race before Tuesday. Manchin defends climate and tax deal with Schumer in multiple shows as Democrats cheer for Biden after big week “I think at this point, the primary is kind of all over the place,” the former aide said. “The voting is changing, there are many competing voices. The president doesn’t want to get behind a lost horse, so I think it’s probably OK to wait and see and approve after Tuesday.” But Trump can be unpredictable in his policy moves. In a July 9 interview with the conservative One America News Network, he left the door open to endorsing Greitens, even as he noted that Democrats would be willing to take on such a controversial candidate. “He’s who the Democrats legitimately want to nominate,” Trump said, later adding: “Eric is tough and smart. A bit controversial, but I’ve supported controversial people in the past.”
