Greitens announces bid for U.S. Senate three years after resigning MO governor’s office
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate Monday evening — three years after resigning in the face of a string of scandals, including allegations of violent sexual abuse and blackmail.
After weeks of speculation, Greitens confirmed on Fox News that he will seek retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt’s seat in 2022. He launched a campaign website in coordination with his Fox appearance.
“I’ve been so encouraged by the people of Missouri that I’m happy to announce tonight that I’m running for the United States Senate to continue serving the people of Missouri,” Greitens told host Bret Baier.
“The people of Missouri need a fighter in the United States Senate,” Greitens said, promising to pursue former President Donald Trump’s agenda.
He rattled off a list of accomplishments from his short tenure as governor, but glossed over the scandals that caused him to resign midway through his second year in office.
Greitens, 46, a former Navy SEAL, was facing likely impeachment by the GOP-led Missouri House when he stepped down on June 1, 2018.
He faced allegations that he photographed a woman nude without her consent in 2015 in an effort to keep her from speaking about an extramarital affair. Greitens, who announced a divorce last year, has admitted to the affair, but repeatedly denied claims of blackmail and violent sexual abuse.
His comeback attempt promises to bitterly divide Republicans and test how far Missouri’s electorate has swung to the right.
In recent weeks, Greitens has repeatedly pledged his loyalty to former President Donald Trump during appearances on right-wing media outlets, including on his own show, “Actionable Intelligence” on Real America’s Voice.
In a Jan. 6 episode, Greitens expressed support for Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election less than an hour after police secured the Capitol from pro-Trump rioters, according to a report from Media Matters.
Greitens’ campaign announced an endorsement Monday evening from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal attorney and led the former president’s failed efforts to contest the election results in court.
The primary election could hinge on whether Trump decides to make an endorsement.
Should he win the Republican primary, Greitens could give Democrats their strongest opportunity to flip one of the state’s two Senate seats.
“As a conservative Republican, it’s not good. If he were to win the nomination, that opens the door for a Democrat,” said Jean Evans, the former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party. “I think Republicans wanted to distance themselves from Greitens because of his behavior on multiple levels.”
In a state that went for Trump by double digits, any Republican nominee will be favored to win. The former governor remains popular with a significant portion of the GOP voters and could prevail with a plurality in what will likely be a crowded primary to replace Blunt.
James Harris, a Jefferson City-based Republican strategist, said Greitens enters the race as either the front-runner or close to it.
“When you’re the governor, you have near-universal name ID, irrespective of political party,” Harris said. “I think he starts off in a good position.”
During the scandal, Greitens repeatedly insisted he was the victim of a witch hunt, but Republican officials were the ones who uncovered some of the most damaging evidence against him.
After the blackmail investigations became public, an investigation by the Missouri House revealed additional allegations of sexual and physical abuse by Greitens against the woman, who was his hairdresser.
The GOP-led committee investigating the allegations found the woman’s testimony credible. The Missouri House began impeachment proceedings in the spring of 2018.
Gregg Keller, a St. Louis Republican strategist and one of Greitens’ most vocal critics, said GOP primary voters should keep in mind that the allegations against Greitens were made under oath and penalty of perjury.
“And at the time Eric Greitens knew he was guilty, which is why he quit as Missouri governor, in order to avoid going to prison for all of those charges. And Missouri Republican primary voters are going to have an opportunity to decide whether or not they want to vote for a woman beater for U.S. Senate,” said Keller, who served as a consultant on Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s 2018 campaign.
Hawley, Greitens’ potential Senate colleague, called on him to resign based on the allegations of abuse and recommended he be charged in the computer tampering case after conducting an investigation into Greitens’ charity, The Mission Continues.
Greitens’ announcement comes after two statewide GOP officials, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, announced they would not enter the race.
However, a long list of Republicans are still actively considering candidacies, including Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and multiple members of the state’s congressional delegation. One of the potential GOP candidates is U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, who called Greitens unfit to lead in 2018.
U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, another potential contender, said Greitens’ history could pull focus away from the state’s priorities.
“There’s a lot of concern for what happened in the past,” Hartzler said. “So I would hope that Missouri would have someone where those issues won’t be distractions.”
Democrats greeted Greitens’ re-emergence with disgust.
“Nothing about this announcement is surprising. Neither is the pain that it will cause survivors of sexual assault who will have to hear his lies over and over and over again for the next year and a half,” said state Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat.
State Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Democrat who represents the Kansas City Northland, expressed her hope that Missouri voters would reject Greitens if he prevailed in the GOP primary.
“There’s a faction of the state GOP that still reveres Eric Greitens. He might win his party’s nomination. But I have faith that Missourians won’t elect an abuser as their United States Senator,” Arthur said.
Geoff Gerling, executive director of the Jackson County Democratic Committee, said that “anyone with a moral compass is a viable challenger to Eric Greitens.”
The Democratic field currently includes former state Sen. Scott Sifton, Marine veteran Lucas Kunce and activist Timothy Shepard. But several other Democrats are also weighing runs for the open seat, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
“Eric Greitens—who resigned Missouri’s highest office in shame— has no business in the U.S. Senate,” Lucas said in a statement.
Greitens was charged with felony invasion of privacy in St. Louis, but the case was dropped a day before trial after Greitens’ attorneys sought to call St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner as a witness.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker was appointed as a special prosecutor and said there was probable cause of sexual assault. However, Peters Baker declined to file charges because of a lack of physical evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Greitens faced an unrelated felony charge for computer tampering, but Gardner dropped those charges as part of an agreement that was contingent on Greitens’ resignation.
In the years since his resignation, Greitens has gradually sought to restore his public image.
He rejoined the Navy in 2019 after lobbying by then-Vice President Mike Pence on his behalf. In 2020, he founded a charity, VirusRelief, that made a series of highly publicized deliveries of protective masks to police and fire departments around the state during the throes of the pandemic.
Greitens’ allies have contended the former governor was cleared of wrongdoing after the charges were dropped and one of the investigators in the St. Louis case was charged with perjury in 2019.
Greitens claimed to be “completely exonerated” when Baier asked him about the allegations, citing the results of a Missouri Ethics Commission investigation of an ethics complaint.
However, the commission’s investigation had nothing to do with the sexual blackmail allegations. It was focused on Greitens’ campaign finances. The commission concluded there was evidence that Greitens’ campaign had broken the law and fined the former governor $178,000, but it did not find wrongdoing by Greitens individually.
Current and former officials from both parties have rejected the efforts to scrub Greitens’ image.
“No, @EricGreitens was not exonerated. Instead of watching YouTube, read the report of the MO House Special Investigative Cmte on Oversight. Sworn testimony > spin videos,” former U.S. Attorney for Western Missouri Tim Garrison said on Twitter last week.
Garrison, a Republican who served in Trump’s administration, is another potential candidate for Blunt’s seat.
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Greitens announces bid for U.S. Senate three years after resigning MO governor’s office."
