Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’s vow to challenge the reelection of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is boosting his lead in the GOP race to replace outgoing Sen. Roy Blunt, the latest sign of a voter backlash against the long-serving Kentucky lawmaker.
New Fabrizio, Lee & Associates polling provided to Secrets Wednesday morning shows Greitens leading his Republican challengers in the 2022 race by double digits. He currently has 36% support in the race, which could attract several challengers, and leads his nearest foe, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, by 19 points.
His lead grows when voters are told of his promise to fight against McConnell, who is under attack from former President Donald Trump. Fabrizio, Lee is Trump’s pollster.
Support for Greitens, who has declared himself the “MAGA candidate” in the race, grows to 44%, 30 points ahead of Schmitt, when voters are told of his “vote to remove” McConnell if elected to the Senate.
McConnell has recently come under fire for finding a way to extend the nation’s debt crisis temporarily. While applauded for helping the Democrats off a fiscal cliff, some in the GOP have flashed anger at helping the president’s team.
On Wednesday, the Hill, in a story headlined “McConnell gets GOP wake-up call,” reported that the long-game practitioner “doesn’t have any more political capital to spend on helping Democrats raise the debt limit again.”
In Missouri, Republican voters are split over McConnell, whose approval is 46% versus 42% disapproval.
But they love Trump, who has an 83% approval rating and has called for McConnell’s ouster. The pollster said, “It goes to show that supporting or not supporting McConnell will be a litmus test for all other Senate candidates.”
Other polls have shown a tighter race between Schmitt and Greitens, a former Navy SEAL who resigned as governor in 2018 after battling scandals that, in the end, were dismissed.
In his 2016 bid for governor, the race was seen as an eleventh-hour nail-biter, but Greitens won 51%-45%.
