Eric Schmitt
Eric Stephen Schmitt is an American attorney and Republican Party politician serving since 2023 as the junior United States senator from Missouri. Schmitt served as the 46th state treasurer of Missouri from 2017 to 2019 and as the 43rd Missouri attorney general from 2019 to 2023.
Schmitt began his political career as an alderman for Glendale, Missouri. From 2009 to 2017, he represented the 15th district in the Missouri Senate, during which he sponsored major reductions in the state income tax and franchise tax, and expanded benefits and tax exemptions for disabled citizens. As a state senator, Schmitt also led a bipartisan effort in response to the Ferguson unrest to successfully eliminate traffic ticket quotas and limit local revenues from non-traffic fines. In 2016, Schmitt was 2016 [Missouri State Treasurer election|elected] State Treasurer of Missouri.
In 2018, Governor Mike Parson appointed Schmitt Missouri Attorney General. He was 2020 [Missouri Attorney General election|elected to a full four-year term] as attorney general in 2020. As attorney general, he filed or joined lawsuits seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, and, on 25 occasions, oppose the policies of the Joe Biden administration. He also sued school districts and municipalities for implementing Face masks during the [COVID-19 pandemic in the United States#Enforcement and challenges|mask requirements] during the COVID-19 pandemic and sued the government of China and Chinese Communist Party for their alleged role in the pandemic.
In 2022, Schmitt was 2022 [United States Senate election in Missouri|elected to the U.S. Senate], defeating Democratic nominee Trudy Busch Valentine. He is the vice chair of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. As a senator, Schmitt supports national conservatism, and was a speaker at the 2025 National Conservatism Conference.
Early life and education
Schmitt was born in Bridgeton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. He graduated from DeSmet Jesuit High School in 1993 and from Truman State University in 1997, with a BA in political science. At Truman, Schmitt was a member of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, played football and baseball, and was a founding member of Truman's Habitat for Humanity chapter. He received a scholarship to attend Saint Louis University School of Law, where he earned his JD in 2000.Personal life
For the fall 2018 semester, Schmitt was an adjunct faculty member at Saint Louis University. He is Catholic.Early law and political career
Lawyer and Glendale alderman
Schmitt was admitted to the Missouri bar in 2000. He was a partner at the firm Lathrop & Gage, LLP in Clayton, Missouri. Schmitt served as an alderman for Glendale, Missouri, from 2005 to 2008; he was one of two aldermen for Ward 3.Missouri Senate (2009–2017)
On November 4, 2008, Schmitt was elected to the Missouri Senate. He represented the 15th district, which includes parts of central and western St. Louis County. Following the 2010 census, Schmitt's district was redrawn, but still centered around central St. Louis County. Schmitt ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections in 2012.In 2016, Schmitt sponsored S.B. 572, which set a limit on the percent of revenue that Missouri local governments could obtain from non-traffic fines. The bill passed the state Senate in a 25–6 vote in January 2016. After the Ferguson unrest, Schmitt said that too many municipalities overrelied on fines to raise revenue and fund their budgets. He led the bipartisan legislative effort to bar cities, counties and law-enforcement agencies from setting traffic-ticket quotas. Schmitt worked with Senator Jamilah Nasheed and others on the legislation, which passed the State Senate in February 2016 and was enacted into law.
In 2010, Schmitt, who has a son with autism, supported a bill in the Missouri General Assembly that required health insurers to pay up to $40,000 annually to beneficiaries for applied behavioral analysis, a type of autism therapy. In 2015, he worked to enact legislation allowing Missouri residents to establish tax-exempt savings accounts for relatives with disabilities. Governor Jay Nixon signed the bill in 2015.
In the State Senate, Schmitt championed tax-cut legislation. He sponsored a major franchise tax cut, which passed. In 2013, he introduced legislation that would halve the state's corporate income tax and reduce taxes on C corporations. Schmitt and supporters promoted the tax as a way to match the Kansas experiment, while opponents called the taxes economically unsustainable. The legislation, enacted in 2014, also lowered state income taxes by 0.1% beginning in 2018.
In 2016, Schmitt joined 23 other Republican members of the State Senate in voting in favor of SB 656, a bill that removed the requirement for a permit to open carry and added a "stand your ground" provision. After it passed the state legislature, Governor Jay Nixon vetoed the bill, but the veto was overruled.
Missouri state treasurer (2017–2019)
Schmitt did not run for reelection to the Missouri Senate in 2016 because he was term-limited. Instead, he filed to run for treasurer of Missouri in the 2016 elections. Schmitt ran as a Republican and was unopposed in the Republican primary. He defeated Democrat Judy Baker and Libertarian Sean O'Toole in the general election.Schmitt launched the MO ABLE program in 2017, which is similar to 529 college savings plans. He created the Show-Me Checkbook website which provides data on state spending, state revenues, payroll, debt obligations, and cash flow. In 2014, he sponsored legislation that triggered automatic tax cuts when state revenues exceed certain thresholds.
Missouri Attorney General (2019–2023)
Governor Mike Parson appointed Schmitt as Missouri Attorney General to succeed Josh Hawley, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. Schmitt took office in January 2019. In 2020, he was elected to a full term.Schmitt resigned as attorney general in 2023 after his election to the U.S. Senate in 2022.
Affordable Care Act
Schmitt filed lawsuits to have the Affordable Care Act invalidated by courts. After Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid coverage in the state, he argued that Republican lawmakers and Governor Mike Parson could legally refuse to implement the expansion. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected that position in a 2021 ruling.COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri, Schmitt filed lawsuits to prevent St. Louis County from implementing public health restrictions to reduce COVID-19's spread. He opposed the release from jail of some inmates charged with violent felonies during the pandemic, a measure that had been proposed to reduce COVID-19 spread in detention facilities.Schmitt was involved in efforts to combat scammers and price gougers attempting to profiteer off COVID-19. In March 2020, he sued televangelist Jim Bakker and Morningside Church Productions, Inc. for falsely claiming that "Silver Solution" was an effective COVID-19 treatment.
In April 2020, on behalf of the State of Missouri, Schmitt sued the Chinese government, Chinese Communist Party, and other Chinese officials and institutions in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging that their actions to suppress information, arrest whistleblowers, and deny COVID-19's contagious nature led to loss of life and severe economic consequences in Missouri. Missouri is the first state to sue China over the pandemic. Schmitt described the lawsuit as a historic accountability measure, but legal experts called it a public relations stunt. The nine defendants were not served for more than a year after the complaint's filing, and the state spent $12,000 to translate the complaint into Chinese. In July 2022, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. dismissed the suit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, noting that the defendants enjoyed sovereign immunity.
In August 2021, Schmitt sued local school districts in Missouri after they implemented mask mandates. In September 2021, he sued Jackson County, Missouri, for enforcing an order that required restaurants to comply with a mask mandate. In November 2021, the Missouri Department of Health concluded a study that found that mask mandates in Missouri reduced COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Criminal prosecutions and convictions
In 2019, Schmitt launched the SAFE Kit Initiative to reduce the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in Missouri. As of October 2021, approximately two thousand kits had been examined under the initiative and thousands remained to be tested.In January 2020, Schmitt prosecuted a murder case in the City of St. Louis. The jury returned a quick verdict, finding Antonio Muldrew guilty of first-degree murder for shooting and killing Ethiopian refugee Abdulrauf Kadir at a convenience store in 2014. This was the first time a Missouri attorney general prosecuted a murder case in the City of St. Louis.
On July 21, 2020, Schmitt filed amicus briefs that argued that "Missouri's statutes specifically authorize Missouri citizens to use firearms to deter assailants and protect themselves, their families, and homes from threatening or violent intruders" and requested dismissal of cases filed by prosecutor Kimberly Gardner against Patricia and Mark Thomas McCloskey for brandishing firearms at protesters who had trespassed on their property while marching in St. Louis in 2020. Schmitt expressed concern about "the chilling effect that this might have with people exercising their Second Amendment rights."
Schmitt opposed motions calling for the release of Lamar Johnson, who was convicted for murder on the basis of a single eyewitness's testimony, after a conviction integrity unit found "overwhelming evidence" of Johnson's innocence in 2019. Prior to hearings on his release, Schmitt unsuccessfully called for sanctions on St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner. In February 2023, Circuit Judge David Mason found "clear and convincing evidence" that Johnson was not guilty and ordered his release in February 2023 after 28 years in prison.
Schmitt also opposed the release Kevin Strickland, who served 43 years before his release in November 2021, on procedural grounds after Jean Peters-Baker, the prosecutor responsible for reviewing his case, publicly expressed her belief in his innocence. Schmitt's office took the position that the law allowing Peters-Baker to challenge the wrongful conviction required an adversarial process, in which the office of the Attorney General represented the state, as a check on local prosecutorial authority. A judge rejected a motion to retitle the case State of Missouri v. Jean Peters Baker. Despite their procedural argument, assistant attorney general Andrew Clarke said the office believed Strickland to be guilty and that he should remain incarcerated. In August 2021, Schmitt's office issued a subpoena requiring Peters-Baker to turn over any communication with third parties regarding the case, which she characterized as "harassment." After Strickland's release, Peters-Baker said Schmitt's handling of the case amounted to "prosecutorial malpractice" and referred to his procedural position as "profoundly idiotic."
In 2022, Schmitt reiterated his position on the attorney general's role in innocence proceedings and attempted to dismiss hearings on Michael Politte's conviction for the 1998 murder of his mother in Washington County, after a Washington County prosecutor filed a motion for exoneration on the grounds that 2002 chromatography analysis from case had been "scientifically proven false" after a review by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The case continued under his successor, Andrew Bailey,
Lawsuits against Joe Biden administration
In a 20-month span, Schmitt filed 25 lawsuits against the Biden administration with mixed results. The number of cases filed against the administration by Missouri during his tenure was second only to Louisiana.- In 2021, Schmitt led a lawsuit against the Biden administration challenging COVID-19 vaccine requirements for health care workers.
- In 2021, Schmitt challenged the administration decision to suspend new oil and gas leases on federal land and water.
- In 2021, Schmitt and 13 other Republican state attorneys general participated in a lawsuit seeking to block an executive order directing federal agencies to consider the social costs of emissions of greenhouse gases in regulatory cost-benefit analyses.
- In 2021, Schmitt and 21 other Republican attorneys general sued the Biden administration over Biden's revocation of the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
- In 2022, Schmitt and Jeff Landry of Louisiana sued the federal government, claiming it was censoring anti-vaccine activism on social media. In 2024, the Supreme Court rejected the case due to the plaintiffs' lack of standing. In the decision, Amy Coney Barrett found no evidence of government coercion and wrote that plaintiffs could not "manufacture standing" based on hypothetical or self-inflicted harm.
- In 2022, Schmitt and 21 other Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over a program that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools that receive federal funds.
- In September 2022, Schmitt joined a lawsuit on behalf of the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri to block the administration's executive order onstudent debt relief. The lawsuit continued to the Supreme Court after Schmitt left the office of attorney general, where the Court held that the United States Secretary of Education lacked the authority waive student loans.
''Texas v. Pennsylvania''
Other lawsuits, investigations, and prosecutions
In August 2019, Schmitt withdrew a legal brief that argued that the First Amendment allowed government officials to withhold records from a freedom of information request, following criticism from transparency advocates who noted that the brief did not cite any case law. A Freedom Center of Missouri representative raised concern that the argument is similar to a case involving Governor Mike Parson, which Schmitt had not yet ruled on.Under Schmitt, the attorney general's office sued the city of Marshfield, Missouri, alleging that it maintained a ticket-quota system, in violation of the state law Schmitt had sponsored as state senator banning such quotas. In 2020, the suit ended in a settlement in which the city agreed to maintain a compliance program and have its state officials undergo training on the law.
In September 2019, a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, including Schmitt, launched an antitrust investigation against Google. The attorneys general accused Google of prioritizing searches for companies that advertise on the search engine platform in violation of antitrust law.
U.S. Senate (2023–present)
Elections
2022
On March 24, 2021, Schmitt announced his candidacy for the United States Senate to succeed incumbent Republican Roy Blunt. His candidacy was backed by Missouri mega-donor Rex Sinquefield. In the speech announcing his candidacy, Schmitt tied himself to Donald Trump and railed against "the radical left". He pledged to vote against Mitch McConnell as party leader in the Senate. Schmitt made his legal challenges to the Biden administration a major theme of his U.S. Senate campaign.The day before the primary, former president Donald Trump released a statement endorsing "ERIC". Schmitt was joined in the Republican primary by two other candidates with that name, former governor Eric Greitens and lesser-known candidate Eric McElroy. Trump did not indicate which candidate or candidates he was endorsing, and declined to clarify. Politico reported it as an endorsement of both Greitens and Schmitt, as Trump had apparently expressed indecision about which of the two to back before a dual endorsement was suggested; he separately contacted both to pledge his support, and each subsequently claimed the endorsement as his.
Schmitt won the Republican primary on August 2, 2022, with 45.6% of the vote. He won the general election with 55.4%, defeating Democratic nominee Trudy Busch Valentine by a margin of 13.2%.
Tenure
Upon the opening of the 118th United States Congress on January 3, 2023, Schmitt was sworn in by Senate president and Vice President Kamala Harris. He tweeted that he was honored to be the 2,000th senator to hold office in the history of the Senate.Schmitt was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, a bill to raise the debt ceiling.
In February 2025, when NBC's Kristen Welker asked Schmitt the same question posed to Tulsi Gabbard during her DNI confirmation hearing—whether he would call Edward Snowden a traitor—he said many asking this oppose Gabbard because she would "reform and curb the excesses and the worst instincts of the intelligence community that at times has gone after presidential candidates".
Later that month, after President Trump called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator" and said Ukraine was at fault for the Ukraine war, Schmitt said Zelenskyy should not be "openly criticizing" Trump and should "stop lecturing" him. Schmitt said that Trump had spoken "a lot on the campaign trail" about "trying to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.... He's a master negotiator, and I think he's going to get to a lasting peace." According to ABC News, Schmitt was the only Republican senator "to seemingly offer both support for Trump and the premise of his statements on Ukraine and Russia".
In April 2025, when asked about Trump's defunding of Title X grants to Missouri healthcare providers, Schmitt said he would be "happy to look at it more closely", and questioned the severity of the defunding of federal programs. Also in April, Schmitt filed a bill to make Easter Monday a federal holiday.
Committee assignments
For the 117th United States Congress, Schmitt was named to two Senate Committees. They are:
- Committee on Armed Services
- *Subcommittee on Cybersecurity
- *Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
- *Subcommittee on Seapower
- Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- *Subcommittee on Space and Science
- *Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband
- *Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports
Political positions