A late-stage publicity blitz highlighting Mr. Greitens’ past scandals has dominated the airwaves in recent weeks, funded by donors from his own party. The barrage of attack ads has taken the former governor from a seemingly unassailable lead in the polls to a spot somewhere behind Eric Schmidt, the state’s attorney general. Mr. Greitens, a political chameleon who first ran in 2016 as an anti-establishment outsider only to lose his perch two years later, reinvented himself as a “super-MAGA” warrior as he sought to replace Sen. Roy Blunt, who is retiring. But his past behavior and aggressive campaign stance have alienated many traditional conservatives in Missouri, and he has failed to attract the audience they wanted: former President Donald J. Trump, who has endorsed no one in the hotly contested Aug. 2 primary. That decision left a void that has been filled by Mr. Greitens’ many opponents, who have pooled their resources in a last-ditch effort to end his political career for good. Local donors recruited Johnny DeStefano, a Kansas City political operative who worked in Mr. Trump’s White House, to lead Show Me Values, a super PAC whose negative ads appear to have done real damage to Mr. Trump’s standing. Greitens to voters. Renee Artman, chairwoman of the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee, said Mr. Greitens’ biggest liability was his behavior toward women, following allegations of abuse by his ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, and a former hairdresser. with whom he had sexual relations. relationship. Ms Artman and other female Republican leaders in the state tried and failed to pressure the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party to come out more forcefully against Mr Greitens’ candidacy. “We shouldn’t judge, but wedding vows are the most sacred,” he said. “If you can’t keep those oaths, if you’ve betrayed those oaths, how can I believe the promises you make to me as a senator?” In response, Mr. Greitens has lashed out at his perceived enemies, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, whom he has accused without evidence of plotting in Washington to defeat him. Karl Rove, a former political adviser to President George W. Bush, who has quietly encouraged donors and political operatives in Missouri to ensure Mr. Greitens is defeated. and his own ex-wife, who finalized their divorce in 2020 and moved to Texas, where he is now seeking to move their ongoing custody battle over their two children. He has made sworn allegations of domestic abuse that resonated during the campaign, underscoring Mr. Greitens’ image in Missouri as a man with a history of violent behavior. Reached for comment, Mr. Greitens’ lawyer in the custody dispute said only that Eric’s “primary focus is on protecting the children” and pointed to a March statement that questioned Ms. Greitens’ motives. Dylan Johnson, a spokesman for Mr. Greitens’ campaign, said: “Governor Greitens has received tremendous support from the grassroots,” adding, “We have seen biased and fraudulent voting in all of the US Senate races in Ohio and Pennsylvania, And to those same pollsters they’re playing the same game in Missouri.”
Key issues from the 2022 midterm elections so far
Card 1 of 6 The status of intermediates. We’re now halfway through this year’s midterm primary season, and some key ideas and questions are starting to emerge. Here’s a look at what we’ve learned so far: Until the final weeks of the campaign, Mr. Greitens seemed to have overcome scandal after scandal. These included lurid accusations that in 2015 he tied up a woman in the basement of his home, threatened to blackmail her with a nude photograph and forced her to give him oral sex against her will. Mr. Greitens has publicly denied any wrongdoing and insisted that the meeting with the woman, and subsequent ones, were consensual, but the allegations helped fuel an impeachment investigation by Republicans in the state legislature that culminated in his resignation on June 1st. 2018. Four years later, Mr. Greitens made an unlikely comeback — and at first it seemed to be working. Running in the mold of Mr. Trump against “snakes” and “RINOs,” a derogatory acronym that stands for “Republicans in Name Only,” he has led in the polls for more than a year, while his opponents, who also include Reps. Billy Long and Vicky Hartzler, fought each other. The race brought together two men seen as potential 2024 presidential contenders: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who campaigned for Mr. Schmitt, and Josh Hawley, the other Missouri senator, who supported Ms. Hartzler. But to Mr. Trump’s apparent irritation, Ms. Hartzler refused to fully endorse his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election or buy into his lies about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill. In a statement on 9 In July, which demonstrated Mr Trump’s ability to bend the Republican primaries to his will, he said he did not believe Ms Hartzler “has what it takes to take on the Radical Left Democrats”. The poll numbers soon plummeted, while Mr. Schmitt rose. Mr. Trump continued to waver on whether to back Mr. Greitens. The former president’s decision was complicated by the fact that his eldest son’s fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is the chair of Mr. Greitens’ Senate campaign. Days after calling Mr. Greitens “smart and tough,” Mr. Trump tempered the remark with the accurate observation that Democrats would likely prefer to run against the former governor than a different Republican. As governor, Mr. Greitens alienated leading members of his own party, whom he often attacked as “corrupt” and out of touch. A lack of reliable Republican allies has haunted him in the final stretch of the campaign, despite his appeal to elements of Mr Trump’s base. Ms. Greitens’ role has been an important factor in the struggle. Missouri news outlets have covered her and Mr. Greitens’ custody case in intricate detail, including an affidavit she filed in March that publicly laid out her fears for their sons’ safety and accused him of multiple incidents of domestic violence. . Throughout the custody battle, Mr. Greitens has responded by accusing her of lying and implying that her motives are political. He has argued that he did not share these allegations privately during marital therapy sessions the couple attended in the weeks following his resignation. But Mrs. Greitens signaled her growing alarm about her husband in writing at the time, according to documents shared with The New York Times. In emails to the therapist, she expressed several “areas of concern” – drawing on her memories, contemporary emails and a diary she kept to record what she called “Eric’s behaviour”. The records appear to track the sworn claims he made. A note attached to an email dated June 14, 2018, lists “a pattern of threats to kill himself and confiscation of firearms” and describes her opinion that her husband at the time had a “volatile” character. “His security is basically non-existent,” he wrote. “He goes from calm to physically angry in a flash.” Ms. Greitens declined to comment. On July 20 of this year, after months of negotiations and delays, Mr. Greitens sat down for a five-hour deposition in which he put questions about his marriage under oath for the first time. He also filed his own affidavit formally responding to his ex-wife’s allegations. At the insistence of Mr. Greitens’ lawyer, the judge in the case has sealed the documents. If Mr Greitens wins on Tuesday, despite the forces stacked against him, it will not be the first time he has escaped the fallout. In 2018, a Republican-led special committee in the Missouri House produced a 75-page final report on the hairdresser’s treatment that included damning and humiliating details. Mr. Greitens has refused to testify or otherwise participate in the investigation, but many insiders in Missouri thought he could survive the scandal through sheer will. He faced felony charges in connection with the scandal, but they were dropped. When he announced his resignation on May 29, 2018, effective three days later, he shocked his close aides. Many are now protesting that he avoided criminal responsibility and has made it so far in the Senate primaries claiming he was prosecuted for political reasons. With Mr. Greitens’ inner circle shrunk to a few loyal but inexperienced political advisers, some of his former allies worry about how he would handle a possible defeat. His money has dried up: Billionaire supporters like Richard Uihlein and Bernie Marcus have stopped contributing to a super PAC supporting Mr. Greitens, though a little-known new donor — a well-informed, tattooed speaker and podcast host named Andy Frisella – appeared. in late June with a $1 million donation. On the campaign trail, Mr. Greitens appealed to the outer fringes of the Republican Party. In an online video that was widely condemned by other Republicans and removed by some social media companies, Mr. Greitens raises a shotgun as masked commandos with military-style rifles storm a home, supposedly hunting “RINOs.” The video alarmed an informal network of former Greitens aides who split with him and still keep in touch with each other via text messages. In interviews, which they gave on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety, several said they interpreted the video as a veiled threat to them personally and another sign of Mr. Greitens’ erratic behavior.
