Top GOP candidates skip Missouri Senate debate as other contenders try to break through
Three Missouri Republican U.S. Senate candidates spent a debate Tuesday night dishing out right-wing rhetoric— blasting the Biden administration, condemning abortion, calling for cuts to government— while largely steering clear of each other.
Southwest Missouri Congressman Billy Long, St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey and Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz each pitched their conservative credentials as they seek to break into the race’s top tier as the summer campaign season begins.
Publicly-available polling has consistently shown former Gov. Eric Greitens, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the top three positions in the GOP field. None of the three candidates participated in the Springfield debate, hosted by the Greene County Republican Central Committee.
“I’m really disgusted with the top three in the polls for not being here,” Long said during the debate.
Hartzler’s campaign said she had a scheduling conflict, but she held an event in Springfield last week. Schmitt campaign spokesman Rich Chrismer said the candidate had already done two debates, including one in southwest Missouri. Referring to a “two-person race,” Chrismer said Schmitt looked forward to debating Greitens.
Greitens hasn’t participated in debates throughout the campaign. In April, he told KCMO Talk Radio host Pete Mundo that he is open to a debate but said of Republican primary voters, “only about 8 or 9 percent that have confidence in the mainstream media and people don’t want to see the mainstream media use their time as an opportunity to just advance leftist talking points.”
A Trafalgar Group poll conducted in mid-May found Long had 9.1% support; McCloskey had 3.2% and Schatz had 2.6%. Greitens and Hartzler were both above 20%, with Schmitt in the high teens.
According to the poll, 17% of likely GOP primary voters are undecided. Schatz’s campaign on Tuesday announced a $590,000 TV ad buy, reflecting a belief that the race remains fluid.
The debate was co-moderated by Darrell Moore, a former Greene County prosecuting attorney. The Star reported Tuesday that Moore has been named a special prosecutor to investigate whether a Kansas City police officer broke state law prohibiting political activity on the job for his role in a ride-along Greitens took with the Kansas City Police Department in April.
Moore had said he saw no conflict between his role as special prosecutor and as debate moderator. No one brought up the ride-along during the debate.
In the absence of the race’s highest-polling candidates, Long, McCloskey and Schatz refrained from attacking each other. Instead, the event served as a demonstration of how far the three men were willing to go to excite conservative voters before the Aug. 2 primary.
“Why give people a free $10,000 for their education?” McCloskey said, mocking a potential plan to forgive student debt under consideration by the Biden administration. “It’s like the abortion of school. You make a bad decision and you want somebody else to solve the problem for you.”
All three candidates said they oppose Congress passing a bill to legalize abortion at the federal level. A leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court indicates the justices are poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Democrats have unsuccessfully pushed for a federal law that would protect abortion access if Roe is struck down.
Schatz touted his work in the Missouri Senate to pass a 2019 state law that will ban almost all abortion if Roe is struck down. Missouri has only one abortion clinic, in St. Louis, and the number of surgical abortions performed in the state has fallen dramatically in recent years.
“We’ve virtually eliminated all abortion clinics and we have virtually eliminated abortion altogether,” Schatz said. “That’s a record of actually getting things done.”
Long recounted how when Roe was decided, he was a high school senior and didn’t know what an abortion was. When it was explained to him, Long said he “did not understand it then and I do not understand it now.”
“There’s absolutely no way in the world a civilized society should think that is OK,” Long said.
All three candidates agreed that the U.S. Department of Education should be eliminated and they emphasized the importance of local school boards. In the past two years, school board elections across the country have grown contentious as conservative candidates have run against pandemic restrictions and critical race theory.
“The people you elect and put on that school district are extremely important. A lot of people overlook that,” Schatz said.
But McCloskey also named the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the post-September 11 PATRIOT Act for elimination.
“It was the first time in the history of this country when we gave up voluntarily a great swath of our civil rights,” McCloskey said.
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 10:02 PM.
