COLUMBIA, Mo. — Republican Senate candidate in Missouri Josh Hawley is hoping people upset over Sen. Claire McCaskill’s comments about not needing rural voters in the southeast tip of the state stay home or cast a protest ballot on Election Day as he tries to eke out a win against the incumbent Democrat.
Hawley’s team last month launched a TV attack ad hitting McCaskill for telling supporters at a campaign stop that she could afford to “give up a few votes in the bootheel” of the state “if we do our job in St. Louis County.” St. Louis County, which includes the state’s second largest city of St. Louis, is a reliably blue district.
In a phone call with reporters this week, Hawley described bootheel voters’ “visceral reaction” to the ad, saying they were justified in resenting McCaskill’s “pretty contemptuous” remarks.
“He was just endorsed today by southeast Missouri police officers. Voters in the bootheel are angry, and want something better than Claire McCaskill. Josh isn’t willing to give up votes anywhere,” Hawley press secretary Kelli Ford told the Washington Examiner Friday via text message.
McCaskill’s camp blasted the “absurd” ad shortly after its release for “ripping her words out of context.”
“Claire’s full comments during the canvass kick off that Hawley cites were, ‘I mean, St. Louis County, if we do our job in St. Louis County, you know, I can give up a few votes in the bootheel. Right? I don’t want to give up any votes. I’ve worked for every single one of them, but turning out this area is so important and that people-to-people contact makes it work,'” the campaign said in an October statement.
Aides also cited the “nearly two dozen events” the senator has held in that corner of the state, as well as the permanent field office they opened in June with the Missouri Democratic Party, the first established since 2012.
While the repercussions of McCaskill’s comments are still unknown for moderate Democrats, independents, and Republicans, the party faithful seem to be sticking with the two-term incumbent, who is in the fight of her political life with Hawley. Hawley has a slim 2-point advantage over McCaskill as of Friday, according to RealClearPolitics’ poll aggregator.
“If people would listen to the rest of the speech and not the snippet the opposition is pushing, they would hear her say that she does indeed need votes from the bootheel,” said Josh Rittenberry, Pemiscot County Democratic Central Committee chairman.
President Trump won Pemiscot County, nestled in the southeast part of the bootheel, by 34 points in 2016. McCaskill took the county by 4 points in 2006, but lost it by 17 points in 2012. It is just one example of many counties across Republican-leaning Missouri that have backed the senator in the past, but turned to Trump during the last presidential election. McCaskill requires the support of at least some of these constituents next week in case turnout in more urban centers is low.
David Christian, who leads Democrats in Platte County, which has the same voting record as Pemiscot County, said the results on Nov. 6 will depend on the candidates’ messages given the “large number of independent voters and moderates in both parties” in his region.
“They are interested in healthcare and education and, most importantly, making government work for the people — having Congress compromise to make progress on solving problems rather than polarized sound bites,” he said.
Access to high-speed Internet was another concern for people near Skyler Johnston, executive director of Greene County Democrats. Greene County went for McCaskill in 2012, but for Trump four years later.
But Brandon Garrison, a Democrat in Clinton County, was optimistic voters would make their way to polling stations next week due to an uptick in voter registration numbers compared to the last midterm cycle in 2014. Clinton County last elected McCaskill in 2006, but put Trump in the White House in 2016.
“We were blue for decades leading up to 2012,” he said. “Whether 2018 is a blue wave remains to be seen, but we’re going to keep pushing.”
