A new poll found Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt leading a crowded Republican primary field in the state’s open-seat Senate race following domestic abuse allegations against former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who previously led the pack.
The new poll, conducted by Remington Research Group on behalf of MOScout, found Schmitt in the lead with 24%, followed by Greitens at 21%. Rep. Vicky Hartzler followed in third place with 19%, and the other candidates, including Rep. Billy Long, all came in under 10%. Nearly 20% of primary voters said they remain undecided.
REPUBLICANS QUESTION ERIC GREITENS’S ELECTABILITY AFTER ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
Greitens’s ex-wife, Sheena, recently alleged that Greitens physically abused both her and their children and threatened to use his political connections to hurt her career. Greitens has denied the allegations, claiming Karl Rove and Mitch McConnell were behind them. Prominent Republicans, including both the state’s current senators, Josh Hawley and the retiring Roy Blunt, have called on him to exit the race.
Asked about the allegations against Greitens, 32% of respondents said they were disqualifying, while 23% said they did not believe them.
The Schmitt campaign characterized the poll as evidence the attorney general is the only candidate in the primary positioned to defeat Greitens and keep the seat in Republican control.
?BREAKING: @Eric_Schmitt Takes Lead In New Missouri Senate Poll? pic.twitter.com/ocLpEauVSO
— Team Schmitt for US Senate (@Schmitt4Senate) March 26, 2022
A spokesperson for the Schmitt campaign called the allegations against Greitens disqualifying and said his candidacy would hurt Republicans’ chances of holding the Senate seat.
“Greitens’ continued candidacy places Missouri’s open Senate seat in the hands of Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer,” Nick Maddux, an adviser to the Schmitt campaign, said in a statement.
Dylan Johnson, Greitens’s campaign manager, dismissed the poll as an internal Schmitt campaign survey.
“This was a fake poll conducted by Schmitt’s campaign consultant and has been consistently off throughout the election when compared to President Trump’s trusted pollster and other polls have shown Gov. Greitens with a huge lead in the primary and general elections,” Johnson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “This fake Schmitt poll was also done before news outlets exposed that RINO’s Karl Rive and Mitch McConnell were behind the disgusting, false attacks on Gov. Greitens.”
Johnson’s comment appeared to refer to a Breitbart News article claiming Rove had “prior knowledge” of Sheena Greitens’s allegations before her court filing. Rove disputed the claim, telling the outlet there was “a lot of troubling information out there about Eric Greitens, and not just his sexual habits and home life.”
Former President Donald Trump has yet to make an endorsement in the race but was reportedly weighing endorsing Greitens despite previous accusations of sexual misconduct that led to his resignation as governor.
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Last week, Trump issued a statement asking, “Have the great people of Missouri been considering the big, loud, and proud personality of Congressman Billy Long for the Senate?”
Trump said his comments were “not an Endorsement, but I’m just askin’?”
