Vicky Hartzler presses on without Trump in Missouri’s US Senate race | Politics

SALEM, Mo. — The rural Dent County setting seemed particularly fitting for the U.S. Senate candidate who recently came to town. Big round bales of hay in the fields. Cattle auctioned off at market. Tractors, trailers, churches.

Lots of Republicans around who like the government lean and the military mighty.

Vicky Hartzler fits in here. 

“I am just a farm girl from Archie, Missouri,” Hartzler told a crowd of 50 people who’d come to the Smith Valley Angus showroom floor to listen to her stump speech for the first time.

Hartzler wasn’t fazed by the livestock urine stains on the concrete platform where she stood. And she’s well-versed in the military. She’s in her sixth term representing Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, which includes nearby Fort Leonard Wood, an Army training post, and Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 stealth bombers. 

In Washington, she’s been a member of the House Armed Services and Agriculture committees, while also championing conservative causes on the culture front.

“We need to stand up for what we believe here,” she said. “We need to not only have the right policies and the right people, but I would say, too, we need prayer. And I would ask you to join me in praying for our nation. Ultimately that’s what is going to keep us safe and secure and preserve our freedoms for the future.”

Hartzler, 61, said she felt like one of them. Even though she was speaking outside of her district, she said, she would fight for them in the Senate. Still, her reception seemed a little frosty. Ominous banners hanging from the ceiling summed up part of the challenge in one word: Trump.

In a field of 21 Republicans vying for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, Hartzler has been polling near the front end of the pack for the Aug. 2 primary. Then, on July 8, the former president dropped a social media bomb on Hartzler’s plans like a high school bully.

“You can forget about Vicky Hartzler for the Senate from the Great State of Missouri,” Trump wrote in his post. “She called me this morning asking for my Endorsement, much as she has on many other occasions. I was anything but positive in that I don’t think she has what it takes to take on the Radical Left Democrats, together with their partner in the destruction of our Country, the Fake News Media and, of course, the deceptive & foolish RINOs.”

After lambasting “Republicans in Name Only,” Trump concluded: “I was very nice to Vicky on the call, but will NOT BE ENDORSING HER FOR THE SENATE!”

It was a peculiar twist in the race. Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Billy Long — Hartzler’s main competition on the Republican side of the primary — also have sought Trump’s endorsement. While Trump hasn’t committed to any of them, his publicized lack of commitment to Hartzler was a notable hit.

Greitens and Schmitt already have statewide name recognition. Hartzler needs all the help she can get to win the highest percentage of Republican votes in the primary to go on to the general election in November.

In her stump speech, she didn’t speak directly about the non-endorsement, nor did it come up in the questions. But out in the audience, Matthew Williams told the Post-Dispatch that everyone was aware of the brouhaha.

“He could have done it a little more respectful, but it’s also Donald Trump,” said Williams, 38, of Steelville, who is running for state representative. “He says what he says and that’s kind of what everybody likes about him, and that’s what we voted for.”

Hartzler told the Post-Dispatch in an interview after the speech that she didn’t see the non-endorsement coming. During the call with Trump that day, she said she gave him an update on the race, told him she was leading.

“I don’t want to get in the details, but it was a very positive conversation,” she said. “So I was, you know, kind of surprised.”

She said she hadn’t spoken to Trump since and didn’t know his motivation.

“I think he listened to some of my opponents’ lies and bought into them, which is unfortunate,” she said.

Hartzler has received endorsements from U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., former U.S. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, the Missouri Farm Bureau and other state agricultural groups. But she said voters mean the most to her.

“I really believe that the endorsement that counts is the one from Missourians,” she said, vowing to “redouble” her efforts and “work even harder” to reach people before the election.

Mike Homeyer, 65, chairman of the Dent County Republican Central Committee, which hosted the event, said invitations were sent to all the leading candidates. Hartzler was the only one who showed up in Salem.

Asked if he thinks Hartzler is capable of taking on the “radical Left,” he said: “Josh Hawley thinks she can take on the radical Left. I mean he knows more about what’s going on inside that building than I do. I think Hawley’s endorsement probably carries more weight than a Trump endorsement would.”

Then why weren’t there Hawley banners hanging from the ceiling?

“I have Hawley signs in my shop ready to go up for his next election,” Homeyer said. “And you know what, these people in this county will vote for Trump again if he runs no matter who he endorses for Senate.”

Craig Smith, 57, a Marine veteran and insurance agent, voted for Trump but said Trump’s non-endorsement of Hartzler didn’t matter to him.

“I am capable of making up my own mind,” he said.

In campaign ads, Greitens, playing the role of government outsider, blows things up and hunts fellow Republicans who have grown soft. Schmitt, who gets easy publicity from law and order lawsuits he files as attorney general, brandishes a torch in one ad, swings a baseball bat in another. Hartzler is big on guns, but she hasn’t been as explosive.