Former Jan. 6 investigator and self-described lifelong Republican John Wood announced Tuesday that he's running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.
I am not looking to be a spoiler. Wood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that I am in this race to win it. I think there is a coalition of common sense voters that can be put together. Wood said he was running in part out of concern for the former Gov. Eric Greitens would be the GOP nominee in the Republican-leaning state. Greitens resigned as governor in 2018 because of a sexual misconduct scandal and a campaign finance felony charge that was later dropped. He has been accused of being abused by his ex-wife and released an inflammatory campaign ad in which he and a group of armed men in tactical gear are on the hunt for RINOs - Republicans in name only. Greitens has denied the abuse allegations and defended the ad, which was removed from YouTube for violating the site's policies against violence and incitement.
This RINO-hunting business has become a national story and I think that the advertisement is an embarrassment to our state and it is dangerous, Wood told the paper. I think Eric Greitens is a danger to women, a danger to children, and a danger to our democracy. Wood criticized Democratic candidate Lucas Kunce, who said he was a grenade to be thrown into the Senate to change things up. Wood told the paper that the primaries of both parties are becoming a race to the bottom to see who can be the most divisive and the most extreme. The Democratic and Republican primaries are on Aug. 2 and Greitens has a small lead in the GOP contest, according to recent polling.
In a statement announcing his candidacy Wednesday, Wood said, Missouri is at a crossroads, and my candidacy offers a common sense alternative. Wood, 52, left the House Jan. 6 committee last week to explore a possible run after being wooed by former Republican Sen. John Danforth. Danforth said Wood would be a uniter and that Wood would be very good at working across the aisle and trying to be a serious legislator instead of just someone putting out press releases about how angry he is, which is the current style of politics, according to Wood's statement.
Wood is a former Danforth staffer and Clarence Thomas law clerk who served as a U.S. attorney in Missouri and worked in the George W. Bush White House. He was brought to the Jan. 6 committee by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
He's running for a seat that's being filled by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican, and will need 10,000 signatures by August 1 to qualify for the November ballot, the Post-Dispatch reported.