Republicans in Missouri made the right choice on Tuesday.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the Republican U.S. Senate primary. Meanwhile, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens finished third. And another man named Eric received less than 1% of the vote in the crowded primary.
So while former President Donald Trump endorsed “Eric” in this primary without specifying which one, the best Eric won.
Now, Republicans should have little issue retaining the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.
With Sen. Roy Blunt retiring, running a weak candidate for an open seat — even in a right-leaning state such as Missouri — poses a threat. And Eric Greitens would have brought a lot of baggage to the race if he had been the Missouri Republican Party’s nominee.
Greitens was governor for about a year and a half after Missouri voters elected him in 2016. He took office in January 2017 and left in June 2018, resigning during his first term amid sexual misconduct allegations and campaign finance violations.
Greitens also released a campaign ad before the primary encouraging his supporters to obtain RINO (“Republican in Name Only”) hunting permits. His ad came out shortly after multiple mass shootings in the United States. Candidates should never release ads talking about hurting or killing their political opponents, and the timing of the ads made the move even worse.
Schmitt has his flaws. He wrongly embraced Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election, of which President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner. To be fair, so did Greitens. However, even with this problem, Schmitt has fewer scandals than Greitens. So unless he does something stupid, Republicans should have little issue holding on to this Senate seat. It’s a safe Republican seat, according to Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
The Republican Party has a solid chance of winning back the U.S. Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. The party has 50 senators and only needs a net gain of one seat to control the majority. The last thing it needed was one more weak candidate in a somewhat competitive state to blow those chances.
The party already has that problem in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and possibly New Hampshire (although losing New Hampshire isn’t a big loss for Republicans). At least Missouri isn’t joining that list.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
