In his third and last stop of the day, Missouri gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens made a campaign appearance in Kansas City Sunday night, after stops in both Springfield and St. Louis.
In what campaign workers described as one of the more crowded rallies of the day, over 130 people gathered for the event, with women making up about half of the crowd, many holding pink campaign signs reading "Women for Greitens."
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker joined Greitens on the campaign trail.
"There are two reasons I'm here supporting Eric," Walker said. "One's named Matthew and the other's named Alex. Those are my two boys. To ensure that my children and your children . . . grow up in an even better America than the one we inherited, [we need] the right leaders to move our country forward."
Greitens then took the stage and evoked his own two sons as well. The candidate also stressed the urgency of the week leading up to Election Day.
"In the SEAL teams, we always like to be very specific about our missions," an energetic Greitens started out. "We've got eight days, four hours and eight minutes till we put an end to politics as usual and we take our state back."
The crowd erupted.
Former Navy SEAL Greitens continued by characterizing the race between himself and his Democratic opponent Attorney General Chris Koster as a contest between a political outsider and career politician.
"He's bought into [Hillary Clinton's] big government agenda," Greitens told the crowd, "and that's the wrong agenda for the state of Missouri."
Greitens further distanced himself from Koster through several issues, including Obamacare, which he denounced as a "broken program full of broken promises."
"Our mission for Missouri is clear," he said. "More jobs, higher pay, safer streets and better school for all Missourians."
To accomplish this, he said it's time to build a government the people can trust. To that end, he plans to ban gifts from lobbyists, close the revolving door between legislators and special interests, and establish term limits for office holders state wide.
With 10 days remaining before Election Day, Greitens voiced his support of requiring photo ID to vote. He urged supporters to get to social clubs, churches and schools to rally like-minded voters.
"If we rise up together, we're going to put an end to politics as usual to build a Missouri we're proud to pass on to our kids and grandkids," he said.
Andrea Tudhope is a freelance reporter and producer for KCUR 89.3. You can find her on Twitter @adtudhope.
