JEFFERSON CITY — The day after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Trudy Busch Valentine began the process of unifying her party as she pivots to the general election.
She faces an uphill battle in an increasingly Republican state, though.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who scored a decisive victory in the crowded GOP contest, is a seasoned campaigner who has already won two statewide races in Missouri, in 2016 and 2020, respectively.
On Wednesday, Democratic runner-up Lucas Kunce said he had conceded to Valentine but stopped short of fully endorsing her.
“We had a nice chat last night,” Kunce said. Asked if he was endorsing Valentine, Kunce said, “I’m committed to helping Dems win up and down the ticket this year.”
Former Democratic Party chairman Stephen Webber said unifying Democrats wouldn’t be an issue moving into the general election.
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“Neither of these candidates were deep enough in Missouri or had enough resources for this to be sort of an existential fight,” Webber said. “This wasn’t a battle of visions for the party.”
Rather, it was which candidate could “get more ads on television in the last 10 days,” he said.
While Schmitt defeated his closest opponents — former Gov. Eric Greitens and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler — by double-digit margins, Valentine defeated Kunce by a margin of 43% to 38%.
Valentine touted a conventional message, while Kunce cast himself as a populist who would disrupt the status quo.
Kunce’s message resonated in the city of Ƶ, which he won. Valentine prevailed in voter-rich Ƶ County, Jefferson County and St. Charles County.
She won wide swaths of rural Missouri, with Kunce winning in other regions of the state, including clusters of counties in northeast, southeast and southwest Missouri, as well as Pulaski County, home of Ft. Leonard Wood, and Greene County.
“We were outspent 5 to 1 on the airwaves and we still competed,” Kunce said. “I’m really proud of what we did. I think a lot of people in this state, if you look at those results, want to fundamentally change who has power in this country.”
Testing their attacks
In his victory speech on Tuesday, Schmitt test-drove a line of attack Kunce used against Valentine in the primary: portraying her as a wealthy beer heir out of touch with regular voters.
“I don’t come from billions; I come from Bridgeton,” Schmitt said, referring to his hometown in north Ƶ County.
And Schmitt continued his line of attack on Democrats during his victory speech on Tuesday, calling for unity in a “fight against the radical progressives.”
Democrats were also trying out jabs at Schmitt.
Kunce called U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Schmitt “sellouts.”
“They all need to lose,” Kunce said. “These are the guys stripping our communities for parts.”
Valentine cast Schmitt as an extremist.
“Eric Schmitt is extreme,” she said. “I’m for quality and affordable health care. I’m for lowering inflation and the cost of basic needs and I am for a woman’s right to choose. Those are three big things we are going on.”
State Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, who supported Valentine in the primary, said voters are going to realize that “Schmitt is full of Schmitt.”
“That guy is testing to see whichever way the winds are blowing and that’s the side he’s on,” Schupp said, adding that Schmitt had been supportive of “Communist China” in the Legislature, referencing his work on a China cargo hub in Ƶ and his votes in support of foreign ownership of farmland.
At the same time, on abortion, Schupp said, “Schmitt is so far, far to the right on that issue that he’s going to lose some people who are more centrist and more understanding.
“We’ll see if he moves into the middle during this continued campaign and if he does it just tells you that he is saying what you want to hear, not telling you what he believes,” Schupp said.
Independent, but conservative
Another factor in the race is the likely entrance of independent candidate John Wood, an attorney and former investigator for the Jan. 6 committee.
Wood submitted 22,000 signatures this week to the secretary of state’s office in his bid to make the November ballot.
“Tonight, the two parties nominated their candidates for the US Senate,” Wood said Tuesday on Twitter. “One is a theatrical extremist who tried to overturn the 2020 election. The other will be a rubber stamp for the failed Biden/Schumer/Pelosi agenda. Neither choice is good enough for Missouri.”
Wood is backed by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who controls the Missouri Stands United PAC.
Over the next three weeks, our Missouri Stands United PAC is going to support him with another $700,000 in television and digital advertising,” Danforth said Tuesday. “For an ad buy in August — and only a portion of the month at that — this is a considerable sum, and one that builds on the nearly $5 million has been spent to date.
“John Wood is the most qualified Senate candidate by a mile. He is in this to win,” Danforth said.
John Hancock, former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, said Wood would’ve been in a better spot had Greitens won the primary.
“I think the way he is positioned in this race, they’re not positioning him as an independent voice, they’re positioning him as a conservative,” Hancock said. “The way they’ve positioned him means he’s not going to take any votes away from the Democrat.”
“If you’ve already got a genuine conservative in the race, I just don’t see where he meets with any appeal,” Hancock said. “I just don’t see that there’s any place for him to get much traction.”
At the same time, Hancock said Schmitt was in a great position to win in November.
“The matchup is a good one, and the cycle is a good one and our candidate is a good one,” Hancock said. “All of that would spell victory for Eric Schmitt.”
Webber said Schmitt is the “toughest matchup of all the candidates for Missouri Democrats.”
“He’s pretty much, you know, a generic Republican and is he’s going to be a really, really difficult person to beat in the general,” Webber said.