U.S. Sen.-Elect Eric Schmitt

Missouri’s next attorney general to be announced Wednesday morning

November 23, 2022 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri Governor Mike Parson speaks to Columbia Chamber of Commerce members at the Crossing church on November 9, 2022 (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

Missouri’s governor will be announcing his appointment for attorney general Wednesday morning in Jefferson City.

Governor Mike Parson (R) has called a 9:30 press conference in his Statehouse office to announce the appointment to replace U.S. Sen.-Elect Eric Schmitt (R), the outgoing attorney general. Schmitt was elected to the Senate three weeks ago.

Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones tells 939 the Eagle that the appointee will join the governor. The appointee will have two years left on the term. Schmitt was appointed attorney general in late 2018 and was elected to the four-year term in November 2020.

Influential Missouri House committee chairman heading to state Senate

November 9, 2022 By Brian Hauswirth

State Rep. Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit) testifies before a Missouri House committee in Jefferson City on March 22, 2022 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

A veteran mid-Missouri lawmaker who chairs the House Fiscal Review Committee has been elected to the state Senate.

State Rep. Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit) earned 78 percent of the vote on Tuesday, beating Libertarian Catherine Dreher by about 30,000 votes. No Democrat filed in the heavily-Republican district. Fitzwater’s campaign focused on similar issues raised by U.S. Sen.-Elect Eric Schmitt.

“I think they want us to protect the police, take care of kids, grow our economy, grow our state,” Fitzwater says.

He will represent a new five-county Senate district that includes Callaway, Montgomery, Pike, Lincoln and St. Charles counties. Fitzwater tells 939 the Eagle he has three priorities in the Senate.

“We’ve got to protect kids, we got to fight for our freedoms and we’ve got to grow our economy. And I think those are the three tenants we’ll live by as a state senator,” says Fitzwater.

Fitzwater also wants to focus on Missouri’s 14,000 foster children, saying they need loving homes. He’ll replace term-limited State Sen. Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane).

Missouri’s 2023 session will begin in early January in Jefferson City.

Missouri Republicans will now control every statewide office, following Tuesday’s election

November 8, 2022 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Eric Schmitt poses with supporters of his U-S Senate campaign during a GOP rally in Columbia on November 7, 2022 (photo courtesy of Schmitt Senate campaign Facebook page)

Missouri’s governor will soon have to appoint a new attorney general and a new state treasurer, after voters elected Republicans Eric Schmitt to the U-S Senate and Scott Fitzpatrick as state auditor, respectively.

Both won in landslides, helped by strong turnouts in rural Missouri, which remains ruby red.

Schmitt has served as attorney general since being appointed by the governor in late 2018, when Josh Hawley was elected to the Senate. Schmitt was elected to a full term as attorney general in 2020. Fitzpatrick served as the Missouri House Budget Committee chairman before the governor appointed him as state treasurer in 2018, to replace Schmitt, who was appointed attorney general. Fitzpatrick won a full term as treasurer in 2020 and will now be state auditor.

Auditor-elect Fitzpatrick says Missouri Republicans will now control every statewide office for the first time in 100 years. The lone Democrat has been state auditor Nicole Galloway of Columbia, who declined to seek re-election this fall.