Former sheriff and state Sen.
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Robin Smith (Democrat) and Jay Ashcroft (Republican) carried the county and won their primaries to set up a November race for Kander’s position, Secretary of State.
By contrast, Koster, who ran virtually no primary campaign at all against three little-known competitors, was sitting on more than $10 million as of late July, records show.
Blunt, 66, is a veteran of Missouri politics. During his failed 2012 U.S. Senate primary, Brunner spent about $8 million of his own money.
Onto Secretary of State, where John Jay Ashcroft was the Republican victor with 61% of the vote.
Election officials in some of Missouri’s largest areas are reporting a steady but relatively light stream of voters and no major problems in the primary elections.
Former Navy SEAL officer Eric Greitens won the Republican primary for Missouri governor Tuesday after a hard-fought race in which he cast himself as a conservative outsider willing to use his military bravado to blow up perceived corruption in government.
A gubernatorial voter for businessman John Brunner also cited his qualifications while also bemoaning the abundance of attack ads. Interim St. Louis County Elections Director Christian Tolbert said the weather may be damping turnout somewhat.
Turnout also appeared slow at some Jefferson City locations, where thunderstorms rolled through in the morning.
FILE – In this November 3, 2015, file photo, former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway participates in a forum in Jefferson City, Mo.
Under Missouri’s unusual campaign finance system, which imposes no limits, Greitens has been funded overwhelmingly by high-money donors across the country.
“The fact that he’s not a career politician speaks to a lot of people right now”, said Debbie Raines, of Liberty, a part-time camp worker who voted for Greitens.
Four self-described conservatives pledging to bring a law-and-order approach to Missouri were competing Tuesday in a Republican gubernatorial race that has been one of the state’s most broadly contested primaries in a generation.
The results are in from Missouri’s primary elections.
Polling places for the state primary elections opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
The Republican Governor’s Association wasted no time in launching its first negative ad of the fall campaign against Democrat Chris Koster.
Three of the candidates have watch parties in close proximity to each other in St. Louis. That left Greitens and Lt. Governor Peter Kinder on the Republican ticket.
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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.
