Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Eric Greitens Sex Scandal Drags Down Missouri GOP

Missouri Republicans are worried that a recent sex scandal involving Gov. Eric Greitens will drag their party down. But he has no plans to step down — despite reports of allegedly tying up a woman who he was having an affair with and taking nude photos of her without consent.

Greitens admits to the affair, but denies the rest, Talking Points Memo reported.

State Republicans are worried that the longer Greitens spends defending himself over Twitter and with his lawyers, the more it will divide their party and dishearten Republican voters, ruining the party’s chances in the November midterms.

In the midst of the scandal, Greitens’ approval ratings have gone drastically down, especially among women. More than half of female poll respondents said the Republican governor should resign.

“What I know from the data is that this information flow is awful for Republicans,” Missouri GOP strategist James Harris told TPM. “They’re not talking about efforts to lower taxes in the state, trying to improve education. Instead everything that’s on TV is about deviant sexual activity, assault, coerced sexual acts. It’s not good.”

The impact could also reach beyond Greitens, to hurt other Missouri Republicans in office. In February, Democrats won a state assembly race in a typically red district, leading some state Republicans to blame Greitens.

Some feel that if action is taken soon, the damage could be undone. “If the governor is removed quickly, the impact will be less noticeable,” Missouri GOP consultant Scott Dieckhaus reportedly said. “If he is allowed to linger in the Governor’s Mansion, I think it will have a catastrophic impact on Republican elections this fall.”

Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.