Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Nov. 8 won the race for a U.S. Senate seat representing Missouri, according to a race call.
The Associated Press was among the outlets calling the race for Schmitt as he opened up a large lead over Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine.
“We did it. Thank you Missouri!” Schmitt said in a statement.
“Congratulations to Senator-elect Eric Schmitt on his victory in Missouri tonight. Missourians are rejecting Biden’s and the radical Left’s reckless agenda and that showed tonight by keeping the ‘Show Me State’ red. I look forward to serving alongside Eric in the U.S. Senate,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement.
Schmitt, 47, had nearly 60 percent of the vote to Valentine’s 37 percent as of 10:31 p.m., according to unofficial results from the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office.
That was with 1,752 of the state’s 3,266 precincts reporting.
Libertarian Jonathan Dine had 1.7 percent of the vote and Paul Venable of the Constitution Party had 0.7 percent.
“Tonight did not go the way so many of us had hoped. While I am incredibly proud of the campaign we built together and the tireless work we did to get our message out across the state, a majority of voters have spoken and I am committed to respecting their will and these results,” Valentine, a nurse, said in a statement.
Schmitt has been Missouri’s attorney general since 2019. Before that, he was Missouri’s treasurer.
Schmitt and Valentine were vying to replace Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is retiring in January 2023 when his current term ends.
Blunt is one of five Republican senators who are leaving office voluntarily, compared with just one Democrat senator.
Keeping the Missouri seat with the Republicans will help in the party’s bid to flip control of the upper chamber, which is currently split 50–50.
Democrats have a majority because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes.
Schmitt is among the Senate candidates who have said they will not support Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as the top Republican in the body. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has also said he will not back McConnell, who has been the top GOP senator since 2007.
He has vowed to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable if he was elected to the Senate, in addition to taking on Big Tech, protecting elections, fighting to keep major projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline alive, and working to strengthen border security.
Schmitt has repeatedly taken on the federal government as attorney general. He is behind one of the most high-profile lawsuits in the nation, which alleges that government officials and Big Tech executives and workers colluded to censor Americans.
Several top government officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, are set to be deposed in the case by the end of the year.
