Eric Schmitt, Missouri's Republican attorney general, wins U.S. Senate race

Eric Schmitt will be the Show-Me State's next U.S. senator.

The Republican attorney general won Missouri's U.S. Senate race Tuesday night, defeating Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine and earning 55.5% of the vote as of noon Wednesday. He will join U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley as the state's pair of representatives in the higher chamber of Congress.

Schmitt, the second consecutive Missouri AG to run and win election to the Senate after Hawley, wielded the powers of the office during his tenure and campaign to take political opponents to court, legally involve himself in high-profile national issues and garner frequent headlines and pushback.

He sued school districts in an effort to make them drop mask mandates and release information about staff trainings on race and equity. He took the Biden administration to court to try and block vaccine requirements and student debt forgiveness, as well as reveal communications between the White House and prominent social media networks. He attempted to sue the Chinese government to hold them liable for early infections of COVID-19. Schmitt also issued an AG opinion minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer, activating Missouri's abortion ban with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

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"We are fighting for the working men and women of the country who have been left behind by Joe Biden," Schmitt said in Columbia on Monday, part of a final-day march around the state to rally support. "The disaster we've seen the last two years, I don't think anybody could have possibly predicted what a disaster this has been."

Schmitt emerged victorious from a crowded and chaotic Republican primary, defeating former Gov. Eric Greitens, U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler and a slew of others on the back of significant outside spending and national Republican efforts to avoid nominating Greitens, who led early on and faced allegations of domestic abuse.

The attorney general touted his frequent litigation and made both Democrats and government institutions common targets in a general election bid that largely consisted of private events and little direct media access. He criticized scientists and public health officials for pandemic-era restrictions and climate change warnings, which he called "alarmism"; he pointed blame at Democrats in Washington for higher costs of living; and referred to his opponent as an "out-of-touch limousine liberal."

"What we see in this Senate race is a contrast of backgrounds and beliefs," Schmitt said Monday. "I am running against a billionaire heiress from the Anheuser-Busch fortune, who's never worked a day in her life. And my dad worked at Anheuser Busch seven days a week in the midnight shift."

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Busch Valentine, a registered nurse, philanthropist and heiress to the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune, failed to stem a wave of increasing Republican dominance in Missouri's statewide races. A late entrant to the Democratic primary earlier this year, she beat U.S. Marine veteran and self-described populist Lucas Kunce with a raft of self-funded advertising and a coalition of elected officials' support.

Her campaign, focused on civility and rising above politics during the primary, opted to criticize Schmitt during the general election. Her campaign cut TV ads zeroing in on his vote to allow foreign companies to buy state farmland, as well as his activation of the state's abortion ban and its impact on Missouri women (which Schmitt's campaign sought to take off the air, unsuccessfully).

"Tonight did not go the way so many of us had hoped," Busch Valentine wrote on social media on Tuesday evening. "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."

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Election results: Republican AG Eric Schmitt wins Missouri Senate race