The most expensive down-ballot race in the country pits some of the most influential figures in the national conservative movement against the wealthiest political boosters in Missouri.
In the closing days before the state’s Aug. 6 Republican Party primary, competing political action committees are flooding the airwaves with attack ads against Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and his challenger for the office, Will Scharf.
According to Federal Communications Commission records in Missouri’s media markets, most of that spending is being made by two PACs: Defend Missouri and Liberty and Justice PAC.
Going Negative
Both groups’ political ads use personal attacks. In interviews, both candidates said they stand by their allies’ offensive tactics and denounce their opponents’ strategies.A Defend Missouri ad in heavy rotation calls Bailey a “soft on crime liberal” who “betrayed the blue” and is “coddling criminals.” Specifically, the ad alleges Bailey “went easy” on a suspect who allegedly killed Sgt. Mason Griffith, a detective in the Hermann Police Department, in 2023.
The suspect in the killing, Kenneth Simpson, was previously prosecuted by Bailey when he was working as an assistant prosecuting attorney for the Warren County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in Missouri. The Defend Missouri ad says Griffith’s children lost a father and says “we'll lose even more if we let Bailey win.”
“It is despicable that any low-life degenerate would run an advertisement that exploits the grief of a fallen law enforcement officer’s [family],” Bailey told The Epoch Times.
The Defend Missouri ad was denounced by the Missouri chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) on July 19. The FOP called for the “disturbing” ad to be taken down on the basis that it politicizes a tragedy and jeopardizes the ongoing prosecution of Simpson.
Another ad, paid for by the Bailey-supporting Liberty and Justice PAC, accuses Scharf of providing alcohol to minors at a party at Princeton University and then threatening to sue the police in response to potential charges. At the same time, the ad said, Bailey was stationed in Iraq with the U.S. Army.
“It’s absolutely false, and it’s been debunked,” Scharf told The Epoch Times. “They’re dredging up personal stuff from 20 years ago that really has no bearing on anything.”
That poll, conducted by The Tyson Group between July 22 and July 24, said 44 percent of voters were undecided on the attorney general’s race. However, among those who had made up their minds, Bailey led Scharf with 39 percent support versus 15 percent.
Scharf said his internal polling points to a much closer race. On July 26, he said the campaign saw it as a 3 percent difference between himself and Bailey.
Money Floods In
Political advertising analytics firm AdImpact said in an email to The Epoch Times that more than $14 million had been spent on the race as of July 22. That ranked it as the most expensive down-ballot race in the country.Campaign finance records from the Missouri Ethics Commission show influential political donors and organizations primarily finance both groups. Like federal super PACs, PACs in Missouri can accept unlimited funds, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission.
As of the preprimary filing deadline on July 26, Liberty and Justice PAC had raised about $3 million since the beginning of 2024. Defend Missouri collected about $6.4 million in the same period.
Defend Missouri, as of July 29, had received about $5.6 million from a group called Club for Growth Action – Missouri Federal Committee since the beginning of 2023, according to public records. The group is tied to the national conservative organization Club for Growth.
Since the beginning of 2023, another $1.6 million went to Defend Missouri from the Concord Fund. The fund is associated with the Judicial Crisis Network, a former employer of Scharf, and is linked to Leo, the chairman of CRC Advisors.
Scharf said he is aware of Leo’s and the Concord Fund’s involvement in the race. He said the groups are backing him because they know he’s a “conservative winner.”
Moreover, Scharf said he’s known Leo for years and considers him a friend and mentor. Scharf said he was a past president of the Harvard Federalist Society. Leo is the co-chairman of the national society.
“They know what I can do,” Scharf said of his outside support. “They see this as a state that should loom large in the conservative movement, but that just isn’t right now.”
Liberty and Justice PAC, as of July 29, received $1.65 million from Rex Sinquefield and his wife, Jeanne Sinquefield, since the beginning of 2023. The couple gave an address in Westphalia, Missouri, on donor forms. The PAC also got $750,000 from Michael Rayner and his wife, Carolyn Rayner. The Rayners, who list an address in Town and Country, Missouri, on donor forms, are part of the family that owns private agribusiness giant Cargill Inc.
In 2022, Sinquefield was a significant supporter of federal super PACs backing the election of Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
Representatives of Sinquefield did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
Club for Growth
Scharf is one of only two candidates in down-ballot, statewide races endorsed by the Club for Growth. The other is Dan Bishop, who is running for the same office in North Carolina.In its endorsement message, the Club calls Scharf “a committed constitutional conservative” and goes after Bailey.
“Bailey is a go-along to get-along RINO with no interest in shrinking the size of government or enacting policies that drive economic growth,” the Club’s statement said.
Representatives of the Club for Growth did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
The national conservative group is a combination of a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Club for Growth, and a super PAC, Club for Growth Action. As a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit, Club for Growth does not disclose its donors. In the 2023–2024 election cycle, Club for Growth Action is primarily financed by Republican megadonors Richard Uihlein and Jeff Yass.
Since the beginning of 2023, the Missouri organization Club For Growth Action – Missouri Federal Committee has received some funding from both the nonprofit and the super PAC. However, most of its funding has come from other conservative megadonors.
As of July 26, according to Missouri public records, the Club for Growth Federal PAC—a state-regulated political action committee separate from the national Club for Growth Action—raised about $7.2 million in 2024. The Club’s accounts contributed $1.8 million. The Concord Fund sent $3 million to the Missouri PAC, while Leo sent $1 million. Paul Singer, the founder of investment manager Elliott Management Corporation LP, contributed $1.5 million.
Singer is a major backer of Republican and conservative causes. In 2016, OpenSecrets ranked him as the seventh-largest donor of that election cycle.
However, in recent years, Singer has pulled back his giving, possibly due to the rise of former President Donald Trump. In 2023, he gave $5 million to a fund backing the ill-fated presidential bid of Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump’s Lawyer Versus Parson’s Pick
In campaign materials and interviews, the candidates position themselves based on their legal and political experience. Scharf calls himself Trump’s personal attorney. Bailey says he’s fighting for the people of Missouri every day as its attorney general.Bailey was named to the office by Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in November 2022 after his predecessor, Schmitt, was elected to the Senate. He had worked as the governor’s general counsel since 2019.
On his campaign website, Bailey lists endorsements from Parson and Schmitt as well as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe. Both Schmitt and Hawley held the office before being elected to the Senate in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
In an interview, Bailey highlighted his removal of former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, his work against organizations that offer so-called “gender-affirming care,” and his efforts to step up criminal prosecutions in the state.
Scharf said he served as a policy director in former Gov. Eric Greitens’ administration and worked on his campaign ahead of his 2016 election to the office. Greitens, a Republican, resigned amid scandal in June 2018, which led to Parson taking office in the same year.
After that, Scharf said he went to work for the Judicial Crisis Network. He described that group as constructed to encourage the confirmation of the Trump administration’s Supreme Court nominees. U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett were all nominated and confirmed while Trump was in office. Their appointments shifted the court to a conservative majority. Scharf said his work focused on Kavanaugh.
Most recently, Scharf said he’s worked with the James Otis Law Group LLC, which is heavily involved in Trump’s defense against numerous charges. At the firm, Scharf said he’s worked on appeals under John Sauer, a former solicitor general of Missouri, on cases including the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity.
As the Show-Me State’s chief legal officer, Scharf vowed to use the office’s power to halt illegal immigration and to push for tougher state laws on the issue. He also spoke about rooting out what he called “a deeply corrupt culture” in Jefferson City and fighting crime in the state’s largest cities by advocating for a change in how the state picks its judges.
Scharf contrasted himself with Bailey by highlighting what he said were administrative and legal failures by the current attorney general. He said the state paid out a record $28 million in judgments in 2023, spoke about high-profile losses in the state’s Supreme Court against Planned Parenthood, and said Bailey’s office is failing to show up for cases or file appeals on time.
Bailey countered those allegations by pointing to his recruitment and retention of staffers. He said the office’s vacancy rate dropped to 8 percent from 24 percent under his leadership. He underscored what he said were “enormous wins” in court.
“I'll stand on my record,” Bailey said.
