MO-Sen: Show Me Values, new super PAC that’s seeking to torpedo Eric Greitens in the August Republican primary, launched its very first commercials on Friday as part of what Politico says is a $1 million buy through the end of June. The spots come over a year after prominent Republicans started to openly fret that Greitens, who resigned the governorship in 2018 in disgrace, could jeopardize the party’s hold on this seat if he won the general election; the ads also debuted days after Greitens’ dropped his quickly-infamous digital ad calling for viewers to get a “hunting permit” to go after Republicans In Name Only.
One of Show Me Values commercials focuses entirely on the many scandals involving Greitens. The spot first uses old news footage to recount the two felony charges that led to his departure before a reporter is heard saying, “The former Missouri governor is now accused of spousal abuse and intimidation.” Another voice goes into detail by recounting allegations that the candidate’s ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, made in court in March, saying, “One of the boys had a swollen face, saying his father had hit him.” The ad’s narrator jumps back in, “Scandals. Felony charges. Physical abuse allegations. That’s not conservative, but it is the real Eric Greitens.”
The other spot goes a different route and argues that Greitens “sucked up to communist China on state-run TV.” Show Me Values then uses the same clip that a PAC supporting Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is one of his primary rivals, deployed in its own ad all the way back in February. Then-Gov. Greitens tells a Chinese anchor, “It’s amazing to see the transformation that’s taken place here over the course of the last 24 years,” to which the commercial’s narrator responds, “While President Trump was getting tough on China, Eric Greitens was praising them.” Greitens’ side made use of anti-China messaging itself earlier this year when a PAC funded by conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein aired its own commercial against Schmitt.
It’s unclear how much Show Me Values plans to spend over the next six weeks, but there’s good reason to think it will have access to plenty of money. Politico notes that one of its main donors is Rex Sinquefield, a Schmitt supporter who has a long history of bankrolling conservative candidates and causes in Missouri. (Sinquefield, a 2014 Politico profile detailed, is devoted to advancing three “idiosyncratic passions: promoting chess, dismantling the traditional public school system and eliminating income taxes.”) One of those candidates from yesteryear that Sinquefield went all-in for was Catherine Hanaway, a former U.S. attorney who was one of the three intra-party opponents Greitens checkmated on his way to winning the governorship.