Newly announced Senate candidate Todd Akin’s campaign is off and running.
Akin’s campaign office announced he will make stops around the state, including one Thursday in St Joseph.
The republican Congressman is making a three-day trip to nine Missouri cities to talk about his bid for the U.S. Senate next year
He will make stops in St Joseph and Kansas City on Thursday. He’ll stop at the Drury Inn near the Blue Ridge cutoff in Kansas City at 10 Thursday morning and stop in St Joseph at 2:00 at the Ramada inn on Frederick.
Akin has appearances scheduled Wednesday in Cape Girardeau, Springfield and Joplin. Then Friday, he will stop in Columbia, Kirksville, Hannibal and St Charles.
Akin has represented a U.S. House district in suburban St. Louis for the past decade. He announced Tuesday he’ll seek the GOP nomination next year to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
The announcement came during a press conference in the Saint Louis Suburb of Creve Coeur. He cast himself as “ the literal, exact opposite” of Sen. McCaskill.
Akin described himself as a “consistent conservative” and denounced the growth of government spending, the federal deficit and called for tax cuts.
He joins former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman as the only Republicans officially in next year’s Senate race. St. Louis businessman John Brunner also is considering a Senate campaign.
Northwest Missouri’s U.S. Congressman Sam Graves announced in early February that he would not run for Senate. There was work he wanted to accomplish in the U.S. House of Representative’s as the Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Graves said.
