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Missouri moment

‘Vicious’ GOP primary race set to pick Missouri’s next attorney general

Trump attorney Will Scharf, who is Jewish, is facing off against incumbent Attorney General Andrew Bailey

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images /Jack Suntrup/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey arrives to testify during the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on "Havoc in the Heartland: How Secretary Mayorkas' Failed Leadership Has Impacted the States" on Wednesday, January 10, 2024./Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. Will Scharf speaks at the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City, Mo.

A heated primary in Missouri on Tuesday is likely to decide whether Will Scharf, an attorney who represented former President Donald Trump, will become the state’s next attorney general, or whether sitting AG Andrew Bailey, who was appointed to the seat last year, will remain in his post.

The race has been marked by millions in outside spending, and a focus on culture war issues and loyalty to Trump, with few clear policy differences between the two candidates. Trump, hedging his bets, endorsed both candidates.

Though the most recent public polling showed Scharf behind, he told Jewish Insider on Monday that recent internal polling has “tightened considerably” and he said he’s “feeling good” and thinks his campaign is “really in the hunt here” going into Election Day.

“[We have] tremendous grassroots energy around our campaign,” Scharf said. “We’ve been to every corner of the state. We have people everywhere … We think we’re going to close really strong here, and I think Missourians are ready for somebody who can fight and win for them in court.”

Attack ads against Scharf, first highlighted by Axios on Friday, appear to invoke antisemitic tropes. 

Some frames featured Scharf, who is also a former prosecutor, superimposed over a dollar bill with the caption “what do we know about Will Scharf”; a picture of a grinning Scharf with the caption “that’s sneaky Will Scharf” over his face; and refer to Scharf as a “New York City liberal,” alongside photos of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Bailey’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, and it’s unclear whether the ads were being run by the Bailey campaign or an outside group.

Scharf declined to offer his personal views on the ads against him but said that “a lot of people here in Missouri have expressed to me” that they feel the attacks on him are antisemitic.

Bailey’s campaign has sought to label Scharf “Wall Street Willy,” calling him a wealthy “coastal elitist” from New York who is funded by out-of-state donors. Scharf’s campaign has seen significant backing from groups affiliated with Club for Growth, Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. Bailey has also sought to tie Scharf to disgraced former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, in whose administration he worked.

Bailey has also attempted to cast himself as a Trump ally; a suit he filed to delay Trump’s sentencing in his hush money trial was rejected by the Supreme Court on Monday.

Scharf has focused his campaign on alleged institutional corruption in Missouri’s capital, accusing Bailey of shady dealings — Bailey has taken flak for accepting donations from groups tied to cases before the AG’s office — and of being ineffective in the AG role and soft on crime

Scharf’s campaign has also put out some attention-grabbing ads, including one showing him blowing up boxes, representing the evidence in cases against Trump, with a grenade launcher. He faced some calls to suspend the ad following the attempted Trump assassination.

Jeremy Walling, a political scientist at Southeast Missouri State University, told JI that the race’s outcome is difficult to predict, but Bailey likely holds a slight advantage as the sitting attorney general, although he’s never been elected to the post and Scharf has been assailing him for his record in the position and can claim closer ties to Trump.

“If I had to lean one way, I’d probably lean Bailey just on the incumbency/name recognition angle,” Walling said. “In so many ways, they’re so similar, it’s hard to predict.”

Walling told JI that the ad campaign on both sides of the race has been “rabid” and “vicious,” by virtue of the fact that the primary race will likely decide the election.

Scharf said in an interview with Jewish Insider in early 2023 that he was concerned about antisemitism on college campuses, which has since exploded. He said that “coming from a strong faith tradition” has helped him connect in a “pretty religious state.”

Bailey has also spoken out in support of Israel and condemned anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

Antisemitism entered the race even more explicitly earlier in the campaign. In December 2023, state Rep. Sarah Unsicker withdrew from the Democratic primary after promoting wild claims that Scharf and Elad Gross, the leading Democratic candidate, who is also Jewish, are Israeli agents aiming to undermine the U.S.

The claims were first promulgated by right-wing activist Charles Johnson, who has denied the Holocaust and with whom Unsicker is friendly. Unsicker further claimed that Gross and his family were Israeli foreign agents and that she intended to file a criminal complaint against them.

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