Missouri Republicans are running attack ads against their own Senate candidate, Eric Greitens, who was accused of assaulting his wife and blackmailing his mistress. Trump has called him 'smart' and 'tough.'
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- Top GOP donors are investing in attack ads against Republican Senate candidate Eric Greitens, The Hill reported.
- Greitens is after Trump's endorsement and has the former president's future daughter-in-law on his campaign team.
- The candidate resigned as Missouri Governor in 2018 after facing felony charges for blackmailing his mistress.
Top Republican donors are investing in attack ads targeting Trump-adjacent GOP candidate for Missouri Senate, Eric Greitens, in an attempt to secure the nomination for a less controversial Republican candidate, The Hill reported.
The ads — sponsored by an anti-Greitens super PAC which has raised nearly $8 million since it was created last month — focus on Greitens' history of domestic violence allegations and criminal charges related to blackmailing his mistress.
Donors to the PAC, called Show Me Values, include Pete Ricketts, the governor of Nebraska who Trump called a "RINO," as well as Rex Sinquefield, Missouri's most prolific Republican donor.
Greitens was governor of Missouri before seeking a Senate seat. He resigned from the governorship in 2018 after facing felony charges for threatening to release nude photos he took of his mistress if she revealed their relationship.
Though Trump has not yet endorsed anyone in the race, he has praised Greitens as "smart" and "tough." Connecting the candidate to the former president is the national co-chair of his Senate campaign: Trump's future daughter-in-law, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
The impact of Trump's endorsement in Republican primaries this year has been called into question by some political analysts following the losses of David Perdue of Georgia, Charles Herbster of Nebraska, and Janice McGeachin of Idaho. Other Trump-endorsed candidates, including Mehmet Oz and Herschel Walker, have gone on to win their respective primary races.
Running against Greitens in the August 2 Republican primary are Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Rep. Vicky Hartzler.
Despite Greitens leading Schmitt by 6 points in polls prior to the release of the ads last month, his lead has slipped to find him lagging behind the Attorney General by 17 points as of this week. The Hill reported the fall in Gretens' poll numbers is partially attributed to allegations his soon-to-be-ex-wife made earlier this spring after she testified under oath that he physically assaulted her and their three-year-old son.
For his part, Greitens denies the allegations, calling them "lies." His campaign did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
"Here's what we're hearing from a lot of people who've seen time and time again the way President Trump was falsely attacked, they've seen how I have been falsely attacked," The Hill reported Greitens told reporters in Kansas City on Monday. "A lot of these grassroots patriots are standing up and they're that much more determined to fight for me."