Though campaign season hasn’t officially began, that hasn’t stopped the speculation to start pouring in over who will be challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill for her senate seat in the 2018 election. With McCaskill being a Democrat in a state that looks to be taking a hard right turn, many believe that the other half of Missouri’s senate seats could be occupied by a Republican after the elections. Now, McCaskill is basically guaranteed to be the Democratic nominee for the seat, but there is much speculation over who the Republican nominee could be. There has been much speculation, with one of the candidates all but announcing his campaign, but here are three possible candidates that could be vying for the Republican candidacy to try and take down McCaskill
Representative Ann Wagner
Likelihood of Winning: HIGH
Representative Ann Wagner is among the most respected Republican representatives in Washington. She has a lot of influence in the House of Representatives, and Missouri Republicans will be hoping that her high profile will take McCaskill out of a job come the election. Of all the people that have been mentioned in speculation, Wagner is the one McCaskill’s team certainly won’t want to see on the Republican ticket come Election Day.
If it comes down to a Wagner vs. McCaskill senate election, it’d be very hard to say that Wagner wouldn’t come out on top. A skilled politician, someone that’s used to working in Washington and someone that knows how to make political alliances, Ann Wagner is the name to watch in this election, if she opts to run.
Attorney General Josh Hawley
Likelihood of Winning: Eh
Missouri’s new attorney general is a well liked individual among Republicans in Jefferson City, which may be the reason that many people want to see his name thrown into the Republican Senate Primary.
Hawley is someone that, before his election to attorney general, had never held political office, but as seen with both the elections of President Donald Trump and Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, experience isn’t exactly the biggest priority among voters at the moment. Hawley is also a very charismatic person, so he could win votes through that.
However, if it were to come down to it, a Hawley vs. McCaskill election would be a hard one to call. While Hawley is a charismatic and well liked attorney general, McCaskill has the experience in major national elections that Hawley simply doesn’t have.
Austin Petersen
Likelihood to Winning: Slim
Lastly, there is little known Austin Petersen. He has all but announced his candidacy, but he isn’t a very well known person, and could possibly play spoiler. Petersen ran for president through the Libertarian Party, but came second place to former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. Since then, Petersen has teased the possibility of challenging McCaskill for her senate seat, though he hasn’t officially switched his allegiance from the Libertarian Party to the Republican Party. The 35 year old did, however, change his Twitter handle from “AP4LP” (Austin Petersen for Libertarian Party) to “AP4Liberty,” which has further made speculation.
However, due to his relatively unknown name, it is unlikely that he would be able beat out the big name Republicans that will likely be vying for the Senate seat. Assuming he is able to do so, he would be going up against a highly experienced figure in McCaskill. It would be interesting to see Petersen, who is a very skilled public speaker, go up against the experience of Sen. McCaskill. No one expected Governor Johnson to have much of a challenge for the Libertarian presidential nomination, but Petersen pushed him to the end. Perhaps he can do the same here.