Deirdre Shesgreen

USATODAY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After an easy primary win Tuesday, Sen. Roy Blunt will share the top of Missouri's Republican election ballot with two unabashed political outsiders — presidential nominee Donald Trump and gubernatorial contender Eric Greitens — who have both railed against career politicians and vowed to upend a "rigged" system.

It could provide for a dissonant campaign, as Blunt seeks to sell his experience and results in Washington while his fellow Republicans blast the political establishment.

“I’m going to be talking about a government that does things, that helps create better jobs,” Blunt said over coffee at an upscale café in Kansas City on Tuesday morning, before he headed to Springfield for primary night.

Blunt, 66, is facing a surprisingly stiff challenge from Jason Kander, Missouri’s 35-year-old secretary of State. The Army veteran and former state legislator is hoping to ride this election’s anti-establishment wave to victory in November, despite Missouri’s increasingly conservative tilt.

“People are looking for somebody who presents a very different choice, somebody who is very clearly an outsider to Congress and to Washington,” Kander said over eggs and hash browns at Winstead’s diner in Kansas City on Sunday. “Sen. Blunt’s been running for office nine years longer than I’ve been alive.”

The Missouri Senate race did not start out as a must-watch race — Blunt was the heavy favorite. But Kander has changed that dynamic with strong fundraising and an aggressive media strategy, not to mention the luck of running in a good year for political challengers.

A poll released last week by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch showed 43% of respondents backing Kander compared with 47% for Blunt. The poll of 625 likely voters, conducted by Mason Dixon Polling & Research July 23-24, had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

The Missouri race has inched onto the national radar as one of a handful of contests that could help determine which party controls the Senate come January. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the chamber if Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wins the White House, and five if Trump wins the presidency.

Kander spent last week barnstorming the state in a gigantic blue bus, pitching his fresh-start promise at union halls and coffee shops.

“Sen. Blunt’s entire message is that Washington is working,” Kander said. “Nobody agrees with that, in any political party in Missouri.”

He highlights his service in Afghanistan as an Army captain and military intelligence officer investigating corruption.

“We need more people in Washington in both parties who have voluntarily been through something more difficult than a re-election campaign,” Kander told a crowd of supporters at Gates Bar-B-Q.

Blunt kicked off his own campaign bus tour Wednesday, promising to spend all of August touting his work for a smaller government and better economy at small businesses across the state.

"The focus of our 100-stop tour is more jobs and less government, and I’ve got a record that shows that’s what I’ve been working for all the time I’ve been in Congress,” Blunt said Tuesday night.

Blunt: 98 days to ensure Republican victory

He said Kander, who first ran for office in 2007 and was elected in 2008, is as much an establishment politician as he is, but without the results to show for it.

“For at least 10 years, he’s been seeking public office,” Blunt said. “I have a record of getting things done,” he added, pointing to his successful efforts to increase funding for medical research and expand access to mental health services, among other things.

In the current political climate, where outsiders like Trump and Greitens have risen on a tide of anti-establishment anger, it’s not clear how well Blunt’s experience-and-results message will sell. But it’s also not clear Kander can convince Missourians he’s a true change agent, rather than another ambitious politician eager to join the establishment.

Odessa retiree Judy Turner, 62, sees the Democratic contender as just the right person to stir things up in Washington.

At a Kander rally in Kansas City, Turner described her mood this way: "Totally ticked off." She said she's distrustful of incumbents, disgusted with Washington, and in the hunt for fresh political blood.

“He’s young, and I think he has the ability to see through the bull crap and get down to the nitty-gritty,” Turner said of Kander. “He’s new blood.”

At Republican rallies in the Springfield area, other Missouri voters echoed that disenchantment and appetite for change.

“There’s a lot of concern and also a lot of hopelessness,” said Janet Dooley, a 75-year-old Springfield resident who still strongly supports Blunt.

"He's done an amazing job," said Mark Davis, a 45-year-old real estate agent in Springfield. He said that while he sees Blunt as an "insider," he doesn't hold that against him because he's a fighter for conservative values.

Blunt: No more Trump talk

Still, there were signs of discontent.

“He’s bought into big government,” Steve Martin, a state government worker from Rolla, said of Blunt. He also attended the Brunner rally with his wife, Anita, and they both said they were irked with Blunt for supporting an increase in federal spending last year.

“It may be time for some new blood,” Anita Martin said. But Kander won’t be getting their votes, because they’re against abortion and couldn’t countenance supporting a Democrat.

“I may just leave that Senate ticket unchecked, or vote Libertarian,” Steve Martin said.

Even with voters’ penchant for political upheaval, political experts say Kander faces an uphill fight. Blunt has tended carefully to a broad swath of the electorate — managing to keep both his party’s moderate wing and right flank relatively happy.

“I think that Blunt is open to sort of the challenge that he’s been around a long time, a career politician (and) sort of the antithesis of what voters seem to want this cycle,” said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the non-partisan Cook Political Report. “But Blunt’s a very talented politician, and that’s worth a lot.”

Blunt center stage as partisan fight zaps Zika bill