Missouri’s 43rd Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the race for the U.S. Senate against his Democratic challenger, Trudy Busch Valentine, in the 2022 midterm elections.
Schmitt will replace Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who announced last year that he would not seek reelection in 2022.
Decision desk called the race just before midnight on Tuesday.
MISSOURI RACE CALLED: Republican @Eric_Schmitt is projected to win the #MOSenate race, according to @NewsNation / @DecisionDeskHQ. #Election2022 #Missouri Live Updates: https://t.co/epTajEBwmn pic.twitter.com/dpYFyPpvln
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) November 9, 2022
Several polls in recent weeks showed that Schmitt was leading in the race. Townhall covered last week how a FOX 2/Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey showed Schmitt with a double-digit lead over his opponent, 51 percent to 39 percent.
In addition, a majority of voters in the poll, 54 percent, said they had a favorable view of Schmitt. Thirty-seven percent said they had an unfavorable view of him. Forty-two percent said they had a favorable view of Busch Valentine. An additional 42 percent said they had an unfavorable view of her.
“The state’s Senate seat has been widely seen as reliably red for Republicans this election cycle,” The Hill noted in its write-up, adding that President Biden’s plummeting approval rating among voters in the state was not helping Busch Valentine’s chances of winning. In the survey, only 35 percent of voters said they approved of Biden’s job as president while 60 percent said they disapproved.
On Election Night, Schmitt carried the majority of voters in the state, roughly 53 percent to Busch Valentine's 44 percent.