Elad Gross, a Jewish attorney from St. Louis, announced last week that he is running for Missouri attorney general. 

Gross, a Democrat, served as an assistant attorney general under Chris Koster. The candidate recently made headlines for filing a lawsuit aimed at forcing a nonprofit associated with former Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, to reveal donor records. Gross has described A New Missouri as a dark-money group designed to skirt campaign finance laws and has been critical of Attorney General Josh Hawley for not investigating it. 

“I have been trying to fix a lot of the ethics issues we have in our state, and [that] led me again and again to the attorney’s general office,” said Gross, 30. “Unfortunately, I got to see firsthand what happens when the [office] doesn’t do such great work.” 

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has named State Treasurer Eric Schmitt to replace Hawley, who recently unseated U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat. The next election for the attorney general position will be held in 2020.  

ADVERTISEMENT

Gross, who also founded an organization aimed at providing better educational opportunities to at-risk children, said he will focus his campaign on “ethics reform issues, getting dark money out of politics, prosecuting corruption.”

He or another Democrat nominee will likely face an uphill battle in a state that has becoming increasingly red. President Donald Trump won Missouri by 19 points, and Hawley won by 10. 

“I’m more focused on fixing the office and making sure it works for Missourians rather than as a person from one party,” said Gross, who was one of the recipients of the Jewish Light’s Unsung Hero award in 2016. 

A Cole County judge dismissed the lawsuit against the Greitens nonprofit last week, but Gross said he plans to appeal.