JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s self-styled pork steak-eating, Busch-drinking attorney general could be on the verge of a big promotion.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt and his allies are spending big ahead of the Aug. 2 Republican primary for U.S. Senate. His campaign has portrayed the 47-year-old De Smet Jesuit High School graduate as a proven fighter for conservative values, while others say Schmitt’s brand belies a more-moderate past, mainly from his time in the state Senate.
In any case, Schmitt’s campaign is focused on what he’s done recently: challenging President Joe Biden’s administration in the courtroom.
Since taking office in 2019, the attorney general has filed an avalanche of lawsuits and has taken actions that touch on national issues. Schmitt has sued Biden’s administration over border policies. He’s gone to court to challenge dozens of school districts over masking. He signed a letter opposing critical race theory. All of these he mentions in a campaign ad released in recent days.
He’s also pushed a message of electability by portraying the primary as a two-way race between Schmitt and former Gov. Eric Greitens, who has been dogged by scandals.
“We’ve built our reputation on winning elections and working for the most conservative candidate that can win,” Jeff Roe, founder and CEO of Kansas City-based Axiom Strategies, said of his company, which is working for Schmitt’s campaign.
Roe expressed confidence with fewer than two weeks before the Aug. 2 primary. “We feel real good,” he told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Eric’s the only candidate that is highly competitive in every media market and every region of the state, and he’s as good in the cornfields as he is in the boardroom,” he said.
Roe, who led Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s winning campaign last year, said as voters begin tuning in to Missouri’s primary race, they will like what they see from Schmitt.
Although Schmitt has focused on Greitens, his campaign has also targeted U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, another leading Republican in the primary.
Roe said voters have a choice between Hartzler, first elected to Congress in 2010 — “someone that’s been in Washington losing” — and the ex-governor Greitens, who resigned amid scandal in 2018 — who is a “quitter,” Roe said.
Schmitt has burnished a reputation as a likable, relatable politician, one with whom you might want to grab a drink.
“It’s always been about God, family, country and the Cardinals for me,” he said in a recent ad, holding a baseball bat. “I’ll knock it out of the park for Missouri.”
“We have a very strong base in St. Louis,” Roe said.
Not every St. Louisan is on board — including Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, a Democrat who has feuded with Schmitt on various issues. Both worked in the Legislature a decade ago.
Most recently, when the city proposed using federal stimulus dollars to fund out-of-state abortions, Schmitt threatened a lawsuit.
“St. Louis has trash piling up and is defunding the police during a murder crisis but evidently has $1 million to pay for abortions,” he said on Twitter. “This brazen political maneuver clearly violates state law and I will file suit to stop this illegal action.”
On Thursday, when Jones signed a bill to fund out-of-state abortions, she portrayed Schmitt as a moderate in disguise.
“I believe Attorney General Eric Schmitt is filing lawsuit after lawsuit to cover up his bipartisan record of working with me and other Democrats in Jefferson City, hurting St. Louis families, all to benefit his Senate campaign,” Jones said at a news conference.
Democrats might be hoping these portrayals could weigh Schmitt down in the GOP primary, helping to lift the controversial Greitens — a point Schmitt has already made on the campaign trail.
He implied that former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, is pulling for Greitens to win the primary, suggesting she knows he would be the weakest candidate in the general election, given his scandals.
It’s a nod to the 2012 election, when McCaskill helped lift U.S. Rep. Todd Akin in the Republican primary. Akin won the nomination but became radioactive after he asserted women who were victims of “legitimate” rape rarely became pregnant.
Schmitt’s campaign also accused The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of helping to elevate Greitens.
Rich Chrismer, spokesman for Schmitt’s campaign, ignored a request to interview Schmitt for this article. Sent a list of questions, he ignored those, too.
One of the questions was whether Schmitt was a moderate.
Chrismer sent this:
“Throughout this campaign, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in its news and editorial coverage, has done everything it can to falsely attack Attorney General Eric Schmitt — including dozens of attack columns, endless attack editorials, suppressing news coverage of his victories as attorney general and censoring his responses to questions.”
Chrismer said the Post-Dispatch “knows Eric Greitens would lose this U.S. Senate seat for Republicans in the general election, and Eric Schmitt will keep this important seat in Republican hands.”
Michael Hafner, campaign manager for Hartzler, said it was telling that Schmitt had avoided debates and interviews with certain media outlets in favor of appearing on conservative talk radio and Fox News.
“It’s all a scripted version of what he wants to push out from his office,” Hafner said. “What’s he so afraid of answering questions from local reporters?”
Hafner said Schmitt’s assertion that the primary was a two-person race between Greitens and Schmitt was “disingenuous” because Schmitt’s PAC had spent nearly $2 million attacking Hartzler and less than $100,000 hitting Greitens, according to a tally by Open Secrets.
U.S. Rep. Billy Long, who has struggled to gain traction in the U.S. Senate primary, also has complained about Schmitt’s refusal to debate. On Twitter, Long refers to the attorney general as “ChickenSchmitt.”
An ad Schmitt’s campaign released Wednesday targets Hartzler and Greitens.
Meanwhile, the Show Me Values PAC, which received $1 million from St. Louis megadonor Rex Sinquefield in June, had spent more than $6 million opposing Greitens, according to Open Secrets.
“He didn’t spend hardly a dime attacking Greitens from his Super PAC, but he spent like $2 million attacking us,” Hafner said. “And then this other PAC rolls in and does all of his dirty work for him at the 11th hour — the Show-Me Values PAC.
“With the amount of money he’s spent, I think he should be 20 points ahead,” Hafner said. “We’re statistically tied.”
Greitens, in a video posted to Twitter on Thursday, said “Never Trump, RINO politicians” were funneling money to the Show Me Values PAC to lift Schmitt and sink the former governor.
Hafner said Schmitt’s cautious approach to campaigning is to avoid tough questions.
“They’re hiding something,” Hafner said of Greitens and Schmitt. “In Eric Schmitt’s case, (he’s hiding) his past as a very moderate state senator.”
Former state Sen. John Lamping served with Schmitt in the Missouri Senate between 2011 and 2015.
He said as chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee, Schmitt was most interested in tax credits, including a failed bid to start a China cargo hub at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, which Lamping opposed.
On issues such as the Second Amendment and abortion, Lamping said Schmitt would vote with the rest of the Republicans, but that he wasn’t focused on those issues.
Schmitt also helped pass an income tax cut in 2014.
Lamping said some politicians like to tap into the grassroots energy of their political party. Others think the energized bases of their parties are crazy, Lamping said.
He said Schmitt had been able to satisfy a portion of the energetic base and the establishment types who write large checks.
“I think he’s figured out a way to get some portion of the energy in support of him and he clearly has the center of the party” such as “chamber of commerce types,” Lamping said.
“I don’t think there’s any straddling going on,” Roe said. “He’s a committed conservative” and “has the battle scars to prove it.”
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