The Missouri Senate race presents, as I’ve discussed here and here, two paths diverging: Either Republicans nominate Eric Greitens, in which case the race becomes immediately competitive, or they nominate Eric Schmitt or Vicky Hartzler, in which case the one-two punch of Missouri’s Republican tilt and the national environment make this a relatively sleepy race that the Republicans can safely take to the bank unless their candidate self-destructs in some as-yet-unforeseen way. For Democrats, that presents a bit of a strategic conundrum. They don’t want to pour a lot of resources into a race against Schmitt or Hartzler that will be needed elsewhere, because they will be wasted. But they want to be ready to pounce in case they are facing Greitens.
They have found their solution: a self-funding candidate, beer heiress Trudy Busch Valentine, who entered the race on Monday. Her father, August Anheuser Busch Jr., better known as “Gussie” Busch, owned the St. Louis Cardinals and was the man most responsible for building Anheuser-Busch into the world’s largest beer company (he took over the brewing division in 1934 at the end of Prohibition, and ran the whole company from 1946–75). You can see Valentine’s power as a longtime Democratic donor in the fact that former state senator Scott Sifton, once the presumptive Democratic nominee, immediately dropped out of the race and endorsed her.
We shall see if Valentine is any sort of viable candidate on the stump, but if nothing else, a self-funder saves the DSCC cash it will badly need elsewhere, while preserving the possibility of a spending blitz in case a Greitens nomination puts this seat on the board.