Eric Greitens
ST. LOUIS — Eric Greitens, a Jewish former Navy SEAL, won the Republican Party primary for Missouri governor.
Greitens, who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2007 and is the recipient of seven military awards including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, defeated three opponents in the Aug. 2 primary.
He will face Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster in November.
The Democratic incumbent governor is ineligible to run again due to term limits.
Greitens is a former Rhodes Scholar with a PhD from Oxford. He is the author of four books, including a collection of inspirational letters to a fellow Navy SEAL struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Greitens told the Forward in a March, 2015 interview that “I’m proud to be Jewish.”
He said then that saw his entry into politics as an extension of the Jewish mandate of tikkun olam.
He added that “people have been incredibly welcoming to me as a Jewish Republican.”
He told JTA in an interview that he had many positive Jewish role models while growing up in the Maryland Heights suburb of St. Louis, where he attended the city’s B’nai El synagogue, a Reform congregation.
In February, 2015, another Republican candidate for Missouri governor, Tom Schweich, killed himself shortly after telling journalists that a fellow party member was leading a whisper campaign saying he was Jewish, to hurt his chances in the primary with evangelical Christian voters. Schweich, who had a Jewish grandfather, was affiliated with the Episcopal Church.
