GOP Swings to Back Legitimate Rape Candidate
Kit Bond to Endorse Akin, Priebus Hints at RNC Support
Kit Bond — a former governor, senator and decades-long fixture in Missouri Republican politics — will endorse Todd Akin’s Senate bid Friday, an Akin campaign source tells CBS News.
Bond’s official backing of the embattled candidate could signal to the state’s GOP establishment that it’s time to get behind the challenger’s effort to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill now that that the deadline for him to withdraw from the race has passed.
The news of Bond’s impending endorsement came after the National Republican Senatorial Committee suggested Wednesday that it is may reverse its previous vow to withhold any additional financial support from Akin.
“As with every Republican Senate candidate, we hope Todd Akin wins in November and we will continue to monitor this race closely in the days ahead,” NRSC Executive Director Rob Jesmer said in a statement.
Last month, Bond was at the forefront of a failed effort to persuade Akin to drop out after the Republican nominee made a controversial claim, for which he later apologized, that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant.