Former Gov. Eric Greitens keeping ‘door open’ to Republican challenge of Sen. Roy Blunt
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is hinting at a primary challenge of Sen. Roy Blunt, saying he is “evaluating” whether to take on the two-term Republican.
Greitens, who resigned in 2018 amid scandal and the threat of impeachment, has toyed with a political comeback before. But speculation about a possible run for governor in 2020 never resulted in action.
“It’s something that I’m certainly going to keep the door open to and take a look at,” Greitens said of a Senate campaign during an interview on 97.1 FM in St. Louis.
In the interview, Greitens presented himself as someone who would fight for Missouri and portrayed himself — not Blunt — as the true loyalist to former President Donald Trump. Greitens’ interview at times resembled a stump speech of sorts, as he told the host that voters “deserve to have leaders in the U.S. Senate who are going to fight for them.”
“As you know, unfortunately Roy Blunt has been out siding with Mitch McConnell. He’s been criticizing the president of the United States over what happened on Jan. 6,” Greitens said, referring to Trump. “He’s been criticizing the president of the United States for not coming to Joe Biden’s inauguration, where obviously everybody in Missouri saw Roy Blunt there.”
Blunt, by virtue of his position as chair of the Senate Rules Committee before Republicans lost the majority, helped lead Biden’s inauguration. A spokeswoman for Blunt didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blunt’s campaign operation, steeling itself for the 2022 campaign, had $1.7 million cash on hand at the end of 2020. Former state Sen. Scott Sifton has already entered the race for the Democratic nomination.
A Senate challenge of Blunt would mark an audacious comeback attempt for Greitens, who left office on June 1, 2018, as the General Assembly moved toward impeaching him.
Greitens went silent for nearly two years but emerged in February 2020 after entering into a consent decree with the Missouri Ethics Commission. He was fined $178,000 for campaign finance violations, but the decree said the commission’s investigation “found no evidence of any wrongdoing on part of Eric Greitens, individually,” and no evidence Greitens knew about any violations.
Since then, Greitens, a former Navy Seal, has carved out a presence in right-wing media. He hosts the show “Actionable Intelligence” on the America’s Voice TV network.
The Star’s Bryan Lowry contributed reporting
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Former Gov. Eric Greitens keeping ‘door open’ to Republican challenge of Sen. Roy Blunt."
