In the Republican primary, incumbent Roy Blunt won with 73% of the vote.
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Although Greitens is a relative newcomer to the political scene, his resume is stacked with a plethora of diverse credentials, including his time as a Navy SEAL, Rhodes scholar, boxer, humanitarian, White House fellow under President George W. Bush, martial arts expert, author of three books, and founder of the nonprofit group The Mission Continues, which serves veterans.
Wagner defeated Greg Sears on Tuesday and will face Democratic state Rep. Bill Otto, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, and Libertarian Jim Higgins in the November general election. He has campaigned on a need for change in Washington.
During his acceptance speech Tuesday evening, rival Koster – who has been running as a “conservative Democrat” – offered some pointed jabs for Greitens for his “disturbing political campaign” season that promoted “candidates shooting machine guns and doing sit-ups for the cameras”, according to The Associated Press.
But election day began with rain in some places, including the St. Louis area.
“The weather may have damped some turnout, but right now everything’s smooth”, said Christian Tolbert, interim elections director for St. Louis County, which is experimenting with iPad voter check-in devices at 51 of its 432 voting locations.
Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller said the weather was fine in Springfield but voter turnout nonetheless was fairly light.
Shoeller attributed that partly to the fact that there are no statewide or countywide issues on the ballot, which he says typically help draw independent voters who are reluctant to ask for a partisan ballot.
On Wednesday morning, just hours after Tuesday’s primary that saw Koster claim the Democratic nomination and Republican Eric Greitens pull off a surprisingly easy primary win, the RGA launched what it called a six-figure statewide TV-ad buy. The Democratic incumbent governor is ineligible to run again due to term limits. Kinder has received much of his money from the Humphreys family, the leaders of TAMKO Building Products.
Not since 1992 has Missouri had such a hotly contested Republican governor’s primary involving so many candidates.
The results are in from Missouri’s primary elections.
Polling places for the state primary elections opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Eric Schmitt and Libertarian Sean O’Toole in the November 8 election.
The most closely watched primary is a competitive four-way race between candidates vying to become the Republican nominee for governor. Kinder served as Lt. Gov. since 2005 and Brunner is a businessman.
The GOP governor’s race headlines a primary ballot Tuesday that includes contests for the U.S. Senate and House, Legislature and other top state and local executive offices.
All of Greitens’ opponents had conceded by 10:15 p.m., when 2,607 of 3,214 precincts had reported.
In what may stand as a sign of the elective times, Greitens, who has never before run for public office, handily beat three more experienced politicos: Frontenac businessman John Brunner, who unsuccessfully sought the state’s 2012 GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate; former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway of Ladue; and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau.
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Together, their campaigns already had spent more than $22 million as of July 21, the end of the most recent reporting period.
