Missouri Republican wins auditor election, flipping Democrats’ only statewide office

Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick defeated former Democratic state Rep. Alan Green on Tuesday in the race for Missouri auditor, flipping a seat that Democrats have held since 2015.

Throughout the campaign, Fitzpatrick, who was appointed treasurer by Gov. Mike Parson in 2018 before winning a full term 2020, touted his political and financial background as the state’s chief financial officer. He has also pledged to use his power as auditor to audit school curriculum and has promoted a plan to eradicate certain subject material from school districts.

As of 11:30 p.m., Fitzpatrick had 59% of the vote with 3,145 of 3,266 precincts reporting, according to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office. Green, who served in the Missouri House from 2014 to 2021, had 38% of the vote. Libertarian John Hartwig had 3%.

Auditor Nicole Galloway, who announced last year that she would not seek reelection after her unsuccessful run for governor, was Missouri’s lone Democratic statewide officeholder.

Republicans will now take back the position as Missouri has experienced a seismic shift from bellwether to deep red in the last 10 years, particularly in rural parts of the state.

Prior to Tuesday’s vote, some state legislators, lawyers and public school advocates worried that Fitzpatrick would use the auditor’s office — and school districts — to promote partisan politics.

They said his campaign rhetoric about auditing school curriculum foreshadowed a politician who will overstep his position in order to appeal to the conservative base.

“These are people that are taking us back to like the dark ages in terms of policy — the state auditor being a reviewer of curriculum is nothing short of insane,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star prior to Tuesday. “That sort of thing is taken from like Torquemada in the Spanish Inquisition — and they’re trying to put it in Missouri in 2022.”

Fitzpatrick, for his part, has vowed not to use the office in a partisan manner.

“When you look at my record in the legislature and as treasurer, I have challenged policies and positions of Republicans and Democrats,” he previously told The Star. “I’m equal opportunity when it comes to holding people accountable.”

At a September public forum in Lake Ozark, the race’s only public speaking event, Fitzpatrick and Green tried to prove that they had enough financial experience for the job as the state’s financial watchdog.

Fitzpatrick said he would work to root out financial fraud, regardless of party affiliation. Green tried to convince voters that he had enough financial experience to continue Galloway’s work in the office.

The auditor’s office conducts financial and performance audits of state agencies, boards and commissions and the state’s court systems. The audits look for waste, fraud and financial accountability.

The office has at times been used as a launching pad for politicians seeking higher office. Democrat Claire McCaskill, for example, used her two terms as auditor as a pathway to the U.S. Senate in the 2006 election.

Fitzpatrick works as the CEO of MariCorp, a marine construction company based in Shell Knob that he started while in high school.

Fitzpatrick previously told The Star that some of his other priorities as auditor would be to increase oversight of how federal COVID-19 money is allocated and spent and holding people accountable when it’s misused.