This race is more than a contest between law-school graduates of Yale and Mizzou.
Despite competition from independent, Green and Libertarian candidates, the most recent polls indicate that Missouri's U.S. Senate race is a toss-up between incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. With control of the Senate in the balance, the race is being closely watched across the country.
Missouri's Senate winner will serve six years, helping decide executive and judicial appointments. Meanwhile, under the Constitution, if the U.S. House impeaches a president, it's the Senate that chooses whether to convict.
The race prompted visits to Springfield by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in recent weeks. Trump endorsed Hawley before the August primary, and Hawley has kept his public stances in line with the White House.
Health care, specifically coverage of pre-existing conditions, has dominated debate between the two camps. Hawley is one of many Republican state attorneys general supporting a lawsuit that seeks to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The Obamacare law bars insurance companies from dropping anyone's coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
Despite that, Trump told the Springfield crowd that "Josh Hawley will always protect pre-existing conditions" during his most recent visit.
McCaskill and other Missouri Democrats say it's dishonest for Hawley to conduct anti-Obamacare litigation at the same time Hawley says he supports a key provision of the law.
Other issues in the race have included McCaskill's Senate vote against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Some observers thought that voting for Kavanaugh's confirmation would alienate McCaskill's Democratic base — which has sometimes expressed frustration with the two-term senator for being too moderate.
If she voted against the federal judge, she'd lose Republican cross-over voters she'd need.
McCaskill voted no on Kavanaugh. He was confirmed 50-48 in early October.
She said in late September that she was thumbs-down on Kavanaugh not because of sexual misconduct accusations leveled against him by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and other women, but because McCaskill thought Kavanaugh's attitude toward the influence of "dark money" on the political process was inappropriate.
McCaskill has also criticized Hawley for his position on "right-to-work" laws, which Hawley supports, including an August right-to-work initiative rejected by two-thirds of Missouri voters.
A Hawley campaign spokeswoman sided with President Trump when McCaskill joined Missouri's other senator, Republican Roy Blunt, in condemning Trump for siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections.
"President Trump won. Hillary lost," said the Hawley spokeswoman, characterizing the president as "forceful" with Russia.
More: Mike Pence praises Brett Kavanaugh while campaigning for Josh Hawley in Springfield
With less than two weeks before the election, national media have swarmed to cover the McCaskill-Hawley contest.
Late Tuesday, McClatchy newspapers reported on a complaint filed Monday night with the Federal Election Commission.
Hawley’s Senate campaign and a National Rifle Association political-action committee are alleged to have collaborated on a detailed plan to conceal coordination between the two entities, which would be against federal law.
Hawley's campaign said the complaint was "frivolous." The NRA called it "categorically false."
On Oct. 17, McCaskill was the subject of a pro-Hawley TV spot alleging that McCaskill said "that normal people can afford (private planes)."
According to Politifact, the claim is "half true." McCaskill, whose use of private planes has been a long-running source of gaffes, said "normal people can afford" private planes in August 2017. But, the fact-checkers found, the words were taken out of context.
Hawley's performance as Missouri attorney general has also come under scrutiny. A Saturday New York Times report based on interviews with current and former state employees and public records found that Hawley's tenure as Missouri attorney general has been "chaotic" and "costly for state taxpayers."
The New Yorker ran a lengthy profile of McCaskill. The magazine noted that she carried Greene County by four points in 2012, but that in the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton lost Greene County by almost 30 percent.
In the current election, McCaskill needs to win the voters who chose her in 2012 but went for Trump in 2016.
