Congressman Billy Long made his entrance into the U.S. Senate race Tuesday, adding one more to an already crowded field of Republican contenders.
Long made the announcement he was seeking to replace outgoing Senator Roy Blunt on Fox News just as Attorney General Eric Schmitt and former Gov. Eric Greitens did. He said he’s kicking off a bus tour of Missouri.
Long announced his candidacy after meeting with former President Donald Trump in New York earlier Tuesday, Politico reported. He also has former Kellyanne Conway, a former White House counselor who was also Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, on his team. Conway will be joining Long at a rally in Springfield next week.
“At a 50-50 split, the U.S. Senate is increasingly a place where our freedom, opportunity, and security hang in the balance,” Conway said. “Who serves in the Senate matters. Kamala Harris has not done much as vice president, but she has broken eight ties in the Senate. The Democrats now control what happens to you.”
“Congressman Billy Long is a fighter who unequivocally supports the America First agenda. He was one of the longest and the strongest supporters of President Donald J. Trump. That’s because Billy saw then what the media still refuse to see: American Exceptionalism, not American Socialism, is our destiny,” she added.
Long is also working with Jamestown Associates which did media for Trump’s campaign.
Trump’s endorsement is very much coveted among the field of Republican candidates, which includes Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and attorney Mark McCloskey as well as Greitens and Schmitt. All have touted some ties to the former president: Hartzler on legislation she passed; Schmitt with his support of Trump’s agenda through legal actions; Greitens with the backing of Rudy Giuliani and Kimberly Guilfoyle; and McCloskey with his RNC speech.
Congressman Jason Smith is also rumored to join the race.
Long, 65, has represented Missouri’s 7th congressional district — formerly held by Blunt — since 2011. He is a former radio host and auctioneer who has been inducted into the National Auctioneers’ Association Hall of Fame and the Missouri Professional Auctioneers’ Association Hall of Fame.
In Congress, Long is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Trump won Missouri with nearly 57 percent of the vote.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
