Lucas Kunce (D), a Marine veteran who last year lost a bid for U.S. Senate, announced he would try to unseat Sen. Josh Hawley (R) in 2024, a contest likely to draw national attention due to Hawley’s outspoken support for overturning the 2020 election results, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) spent $6 million on independent candidate John Wood’s Senate bid that lasted only 55 days, the Kansas City Star reports.

“John Wood, a former investigator for the Jan. 6 committee who launched an independent bid for U.S. Senate in Missouri, said Tuesday he was withdrawing from the race,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

“Wood, who positioned himself as a conservative alternative to the Democratic and Republican nominees, said there was no path forward for his bid after controversial ex-Gov. Eric Greitens lost to Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Aug. 2 in the Republican primary.”

Eric Schmitt (R) has won the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Missouri, defeating Vicky Hartzler (R), Eric Greitens (R) and Billy Long (R), according to the Cook Political Report.

Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Billy Long (R) tweets:

I coined the phrase ‘Trump Train.’ I’ve been with him through thick and thin but I was taken aback when he came out with a full throated endorsement of me in #MOSen race! He said to pick BETWEEN the two ERIC’s – that’s ME! E.S. line 2 E.G. line 4 I’m BETWEEN the two on line 3!

This comes after Eric Greitens (R) and Eric Schmitt (R) both claimed Trump endorsed them.

Rolling Stone: Missouri’s Senate race doubles as the toxic masculinity bowl.

Politico: “Trump kicked off the private lobbying spree late Monday morning, when he posted on social media that he would be making his endorsement official that day — without mentioning that he apparently had not yet made his final choice. What transpired over the course of the afternoon illustrates the anarchical nature of Trump’s endorsement process.”

“While the much-coveted endorsement is one of Trump’s greatest assets and his chief political weapon, how he decides who gets one is often more improvisational than scripted.”

“The Republicans competing for the U.S. Senate nomination in Tuesday’s primary here spent their final day of campaigning in a familiar state of suspense — checking their phones for a statement from Donald Trump,” the Washington Post reports.

“But by day’s end, the former president injected more chaos into an already tumultuous race, simply endorsing ‘ERIC’ — a first name shared by two rival candidates — former governor Eric Greitens and state Attorney General Eric Schmitt — as he suggested he was leaving it to voters to choose between them.”

“Former U.S. attorney John Wood, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri who is seeking to appeal to moderate Republicans, said he collected 22,000 signatures to get his name on the November ballot,” the Kansas City Star reports.

Former President Donald Trump announced he is preparing to endorse in the Missouri GOP Senate primary today.

Playbook: “He is very likely to back Eric Greitens, the scandal-plagued former governor, who has strong ties to Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle.”

The Assembly: “An ambitious student from St. Louis left a mark at Duke University before becoming governor of Missouri and resigning amid scandal. As Eric Greitens attempts a comeback, people who thought they knew him wonder who he really is.”

Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), who is running for U.S. Senate in Missouri, predicted “white smoke soon from 45” on the race.

The Kansas City Star has a must-read article about how Eric Greitens (R) “went dark” before announcing his U.S. Senate bid.

“For the next year, eight months and 13 days, Greitens would not post on social media. He isolated himself from long-time friends and Missouri politicos. He separated from his wife. He appeared aimless, bumping from one former occupation to another, talking of writing a book, of being shipped to the Middle East with the Navy, of doing something in the media. He surrounded himself with people who, like him, believed he’d been the victim of a dirty political trick, one that had torn everything out from under him because he was fighting for the people of Missouri.”

“For the longest time, Greitens had the veneer of a man incapable of failure. People told stories about his perfectionism and his high expectations. But underneath the success was a powerful man with a seeming unwillingness to respect boundaries — the boundaries of campaign law, the boundaries of the woman with whom he had an affair. The veneer had slipped off.”

Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) is scheduled to testify Wednesday in his ongoing child custody dispute with his ex-wife Sheena Greitens, the Kansas City Star reports.

Greitens will likely will likely face questions about allegations that he abused his ex-wife and their young children in 2018. It could expose damaging information about the U.S. Senate candidate just weeks before the Republican primary on Aug. 2.

A new Trafalgar Group poll in Missouri finds Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R) and former Gov. Eric Greitens (R) tied in the Republican U.S. Senate race at 24%, followed by Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) at 23% and 17% undecided.

Meanwhile, Schmitt launched a new ad saying that if elected he’ll take a “blowtorch” to the Biden agenda while literally holding a blowtorch.

John Wood, a former senior investigator for the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, launched a Senate campaign in Missouri as an independent, calling for a “commonsense alternative” to the field of Republican and Democratic candidates, CNN reports.

Wood predicted in an interview with the St. Louis Post Dispatch that former Gov. Eric Greitens (R) would win the GOP primary on Aug. 2 and said voters deserved an alternative in the heavily Republican state.

“Wood’s entry will represent a seismic shift in the Senate race — if he can generate the financial backing and grassroots support necessary to mount a serious campaign.”

“Sheena Greitens grew concerned enough about her then-husband Eric Greitens’ (R) violent and controlling behavior four years ago that she contacted both a marriage therapist and family lawyer to outline allegations of the former Missouri governor being physically and emotionally abusive to her and their young children,” the Kansas City Star reports.

“The two communications, sent in 2018, offer an exhaustive account of the abuse allegations against Eric Greitens that were first made public in a sworn statement filed by Sheena Greitens in March.”

“Now a candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, Eric Greitens has tried to paint the allegations as a political conspiracy orchestrated by establishment Republicans in an effort to derail his campaign.”

“Republicans are launching a well-funded outside group to stop disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens from winning their upcoming Missouri Senate primary,” Politico reports.

“The group, called Show Me Values, is set to start running TV advertisements targeting Greitens, beginning Friday.”