() Two Republican candidates vying for the seat of retiring Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt publicly claimed the endorsement of former President Donald Trump on Monday and thanked him for his support.
The candidates: former Gov. Eric Greitens and Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
The endorsement: “I trust the Great People of Missouri, on this one, to make up their own minds, much as they did when they gave me landslide victories in 2016 and 2020 Elections, and I am therefore proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Eric McElroy, the third Senate candidate named Eric, didn’t post anything on Monday for his two Facebook page followers.
Although the two front-runners both have their own conservative bonafides, the true endorsement likely belonged to Greitens, given that Trump had criticized Schmitt’s campaign a day earlier.
The former president accused a poll that showed strong support for Schmitt as a “great dishonesty” and “a completely fake poll commissioned by the RINO establishment,” according to Breitbart.
Trump spoke highly of Greitens in the past. Last year, Greitens hired former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle to be the national chairman of his Senate campaign. Guilfoyle announced earlier this year she was engaged to Donald Trump Jr.
Greitens, who resigned as Ggovernor of Missouri in June 2018 after now debunked allegations of sexual assault, and ethics and campaign-finance violations, posted a photograph of Trump on social media on Monday with the text, “Honored to have the support of President Trump! We will MAGA!”
I’m honored to receive President Trump’s endorsement. From the beginning, I’ve been the true MAGA Champion fighting against the RINO establishment backing Schmitt.
President Trump said it best when he characterized Schmitt’s campaign as ‘great dishonesty in politics.’
— Eric Greitens (@EricGreitens) August 1, 2022
Schmitt sent an email with the subject line, “President Donald Trump Endorses ERIC SCHMITT for U.S. Senate.”
“Thank you again, President Trump,” Schmitt wrote. “We are going to win big and I look forward to restoring the America First agenda with you.”
🚨ENDORSEMENT—PRESIDENT TRUMP🚨I’m grateful for President Trump’s endorsement. As the only America First candidate who has actually fought for election integrity, border security & against the Left’s indoctrination of our kids—I’ll take that fight to the Senate to SAVE AMERICA!
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) August 1, 2022
Schmitt—who was leading the primary race by double digits—also posted a photo of himself with Trump on his social media feeds.
Greitens and Schmitt didn’t mention the other in their communications.
There are 21 Republican candidates for Blunt’s seat, but most polls put Greitens and Schmitt at the top of the list with U.S. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler close behind.
In July, Trump announced he wouldn’t endorse Hartzler.
“There is a BIG Election in the Great State of Missouri, and we must send a MAGA Champion and True Warrior to the U.S. Senate, someone who will fight for Border Security, Election Integrity, our Military and Great Veterans, together with having a powerful toughness on Crime and the Border,” Trump wrote to begin his Missouri Senate endorsement. “We need a person who will not back down to the Radical Left Lunatics who are destroying our Country.”
