- Republican state attorney general Eric Schmitt won against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine to represent Missouri in the US Senate.
Republican Eric Schmitt won the Missouri Senate seat against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine. Polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the red state.
Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, who has represented Missouri in the US Senate since 2011, announced he would not seek reelection to a third term, leaving the seat vacant. Schmitt's win means the red Senate seat will stay in GOP hands.
Missouri's US Senate race candidates
Schmitt serves as the attorney general of Missouri, a position he was appointed to by Republican Gov. Mike Parsons following former Attorney General Josh Hawley's election to the US Senate.
Prior to being appointed attorney general, Schmitt served as state treasurer and state senator.
Valentine, Schmitt's opponent, is an heiress of the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune. She's among 22 self-funding candidates who have together pumped more than $435 million into 2022 midterm races.
Valentine has personally invested significant amounts of her wealth in health insurance companies while pledging to "stand up" to health insurers, as Insider reported in July.
Missouri's voting history
The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden by a margin of about 15 percentage points in the 2020 election. Missouri has consecutively voted Republican in the last six presidential elections.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Schmitt has raised $5.7 million, spent $5.4 million, and has $279,234 cash on hand, as of October 19.
His opponent, Valentine, has raised $12 million, spent $11.6 million, and has $327,578 cash on hand, as of October 19. Valentine has mostly self-funded her campaign.
As of November 7, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $31.4 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's highly contested primary phase.
What experts say
The race between Schmitt and Valentine is rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.