Paul Curtman has scheduled a Saturday rally to kick off the exploratory phase of his bid for Senate, as Republicans in Missouri show signs of impatience with Attorney General Josh Hawley.
As Hawley takes his time mulling his plans, other Republicans interested in running are beginnng to maneuver. Curtman, 36, is a state assemblyman who previously announced the formation of an exploratory committee to examine a midterm campaign. Yet he’s to hold a rally this weekend near St. Louis, at which he expects “several hundred” people to attend.
“The response overwheleming. Several hundred have registered online,” Curtman, a Marine Corps veteran, said Tuesday during a brief telephone interview. The rally, he added, “is just kind of a kick off event for all of my supporters … to talk about why I’m entering the exploratory phase and what I hope to achieve out of it that will lead me to a final decision, hopefully soon.”
Curtman is based in Franklin County, 30 miles west of St. Louis. Missouri Treasurer Eric Schmitt also is preparing to run for Senate. He was in Washington earlier this month for meetings with Senate GOP leaders.
Hawley, 37, is the consensus choice of Republican power brokers in Washington and Missouri to challenge Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018. She’s vulnerable, and President Trump crushed in the state last November, but Republicans want a top tier candidate to guard against a repeat of 2012, when an equally endangered McCaskill escaped because the GOP nominated a week standard bearer.
Hawley’s an even hotter commodity after Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., decided to forgo a Senate bid and run for re-election to the House.
