About
Eric Schmitt (R) has served as attorney general of Missouri since 2019 and ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement. After winning in November, he will fill the seat of retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
Schmitt previously served as state treasurer from 2017–19 and was a member of the Missouri Senate from 2009–17. Earlier in his career, he was a lawyer in private practice before becoming an alderman for the city of Glendale, Missouri.
In 2020, Schmitt gained national attention for his efforts to combat public health measures to prevent the spread of Covid, along with filing a senseless, taxpayer-funded lawsuit against the government of China for failing to prevent or contain the pandemic. In May 2021, he filed a lawsuit against the city of St. Louis over its Covid policies on indoor dining limits and mask mandates.
January 6, 2021
- Schmitt currently serves as the vice chair of the Republican Attorney Generals Association (RAGA), which was responsible for spearheading robocalls to Trump supporters in the weeks leading up to the attack on the Capitol encouraging them to be “patriots” and come to Washington on Jan. 6 to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election. After the insurrection, a statement from his office claimed that ““Attorney General Schmitt absolutely had no knowledge of or involvement in the robocall, and condemns the violence that took place… in the strongest possible terms, period.”
- On June 9, 2022, Schmitt tweeted: “The January 6 committee is a joke, meant to smear President Trump and his allies and is an intentional distraction from Joe Biden’s failures.”
The Big Lie
- Through RAGA, Schmitt led the effort to get Republican AGs across the country to sign on to an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed by Texas AG Ken Paxton (R) urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the results of the presidential election in four swing states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
- In fall 2021, a super PAC called Save Missouri Values ran a campaign ad supporting Schmitt’s Senate race that included footage of Trump claiming “this election was rigged” and promoting the lawsuits he filed to challenge the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.