A trio of checks totaling nearly $3 million rolled into a political action committee supporting Republican Will Scharf over the last week, boosting his campaign to unseat Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in the August GOP primary.
On Wednesday, Club for Growth Action Missouri — which is supporting Scharf — reported a $1.4 million donation from Paul Singer, one of the nation’s richest hedge fund managers.
The check comes just days after the PAC received two other massive donations: $500,000 from Club for Growth’s federal PAC and $1 million from the Concord Fund, which was formerly known as Judicial Crisis Network and is bankrolled by groups connected to conservative activist Leonard Leo.
Leo is considered one of the main architects of conservatives’ efforts to reshape the American judicial system, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Another $1 million donation was reported last week coming from Leo directly, but a spokesman for Club for Growth said that was a filing error that is being corrected.
“Will Scharf is one of America’s leading conservative warriors, his campaign’s momentum is growing and we are proud to support him,” said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth Action, a national conservative anti-tax nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that endorsed Scharf last year.
Eric Lee
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St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is seeking a full term in office after being appointed by Gov. Mike Parson, speaks during a press conference last February at the old U.S. Post Office Building in downtown St. Louis.
A spokesman for Bailey, who was appointed attorney general by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in 2022, hammered the donations as evidence that Scharf’s support isn’t coming from Missouri.
“Wall Street Willy is raking in millions from the same donors who literally just wasted millions on Nikki Haley’s historically abysmal campaign against President Trump,” said Michael Hafner, Bailey’s spokesman. “They weren’t successful then and they won’t be successful in buying a seat in Missouri this year.”
April marked the end of the first fundraising quarter of 2024, though candidates and committees won’t file the next round of disclosure reports until later this month.
The two seven-figure checks to Club for Growth are the biggest individual donations to a candidate or affiliated PAC this election cycle. The only donations that are larger went to initiative petition campaigns.
The three donations in the last week also nearly equal the amount of cash on hand reported in January by the candidates and their affiliated PACs combined.
In January, Scharf’s campaign reported having roughly $837,000 cash on hand. Club for Growth Action Missouri is an independent spending committee that Scharf can coordinate with to raise money but can’t control. It reported $605,000 cash on hand in January.
Bailey’s campaign reported $530,000 cash on hand in January, and the independent spending committee supporting his candidacy, Liberty and Justice PAC, reported $1.2 million.
While candidates are bound by campaign contributions limits, independent committees are not.
Since those January disclosure reports were filed, Liberty and Justice PAC has reported $835,000 in large donations, with the biggest chunk coming from retired Minneapolis couple Mike and Carolyn Rayner, who are part of the Cargill family and gave $500,000.
The PAC also received $100,000 checks from retired investor Rex Sinquefield of St. Louis and Kansas trial attorney Michael Ketchmark.
In a statement to Politico after the initial donations were reported last week, Scarf said that, “while my opponent is being supported by liberal trial lawyers, pot dealers and special interests, we’re proud to be supported by conservatives in Missouri and across the country.”
Bailey served a general counsel for Parson before taking over as attorney general when his predecessor, Eric Schmitt, won a seat in the U.S. Senate. He previously worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Warren County, an assistant attorney general and general counsel for the Missouri Department of Corrections.
An army veteran, Bailey was awarded two Army Achievement Medals, an Army Accommodation Medal, a Combat Action Badge and two Bronze Star Medals for his service.
Scharf is a former assistant U.S. attorney who worked as policy director in Gov. Eric Greitens’ brief administration. He entered politics in 2015 when he was hired to be policy director for Catherine Hanaway as she sought the 2016 GOP nomination for governor.
In October, he announced he had joined the team of lawyers representing former President Donald Trump in various legal issues pertaining to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
This story was originally published in The Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.