Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway announces she won’t run for office next year

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway said Friday that she will not run for re-election next year, creating an open race for the last remaining statewide office held by a Democrat.

Galloway, 38, who said she doesn’t plan to seek any office, was seen as a rising star for the party as recently as a year ago before losing the 2020 governor’s race to Republican Gov. Mike Parson by a nearly 3-2 margin. Democrats were already certain to face a competitive auditor’s race, but Galloway’s decision complicates the party’s efforts to retain its last statewide stronghold.

She will leave no obvious Democratic successor as Republicans eye a race they believe they have a strong chance of winning.

“Today, I am announcing that I will not be a candidate for Missouri State Auditor nor any other office in 2022,” Galloway said in a statement Friday. “In my remaining time as the state’s watchdog, I will continue to diligently root out waste and take on corruption.”

She noted wishing to spend more time with family: “I am ready for the next chapter of service and life with my family.” Her term will end in early 2023.

Democrats had hoped Galloway could lead them to victory in 2020. Instead, she garnered 40% of the vote to Parson’s 57%.

Parson’s margin of victory was a 10-point gain over GOP predecessor Eric Greitens in his 2016 defeat of Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster. Though Galloway lost decisively, her performance was still the best of any Democrat in a statewide election in 2020.

Missouri Democrats have fallen precipitously from the peak of their power more than 20 years ago, when they controlled the governor’s office and the General Assembly. While the party still has two members of Congress, its influence in state government has greatly diminished as rural and suburban areas flock to Republicans.

The auditor’s office has been an area of relative Democratic strength even as the party lost ground elsewhere. Since 1999, Republicans have held it just once, from 2011 to 2015.

Republicans now see an opportunity to secure total control of state government for the first time in decades.

“At least to me, the current scenario they are non-existent, irrelevant from a statewide perspective,” said James Harris, a Jefferson City-based Republican consultant.

A field of Republican candidates has already been forming. Rep. David Gregory of St. Louis will soon announce his plans to run for the auditor’s seat, according to a person close to him. State treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick confirmed he is “actively considering running.”

“I am committed to ensuring Republicans nominate a true fiscal conservative that will win this important office next November,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a text message.

Other GOP names floated include Sen. Bob Onder and Rep. Rick Brattin.

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat, struck an upbeat tone about Democrats’ prospects in 2022, when the auditor’s seat will be up for election alongside the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Roy Blunt.

“As odd as it might sound I think that it’s also important to note where the Republican Party is right now,” he said. “It looks like (former Governor) Eric Greitens or people of that mold are the people you have to contend with in a general election right now.”

Rizzo said he sees weaknesses in a Republican supermajority-ruled legislature that failed to renew a critical tax to fund Medicaid or pass a popular bill to forgive unemployment waivers that the state paid to jobless Missourians in error.

Geoff Gerling, executive director of the Jackson County Democratic Committee, also was confident Democrats could still hold onto the seat.

He pointed to 2018, when Republican Josh Hawley beat incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill in a contentious U.S. Senate race, but voters still elected Galloway to stay in the auditor’s seat. She had been previously appointed to it by then-Gov. Jay Nixon in 2015.

“The auditor is ideally not viewed by voters as a hyper-partisan position,” Gerling said. “Our job now as a party for the next few months is to find a good name with a clean background that can hop on and start fundraising right away and show off their auditor chops, not necessarily their ‘I’m a hyper-partisan Democrat’ chops.”

Galloway started her career in government about a decade ago as Boone County Treasurer.

During the governor’s race, she hammered Parson over his response to COVID-19 and said electing him would simply preserve the status quo. Galloway had promised to implement a statewide mask mandate if elected, something Parson refused to order.

Before entering public office, Galloway was a certified public accountant and earned degrees from Missouri S&T and the University of Missouri. As Boone County Treasurer, she managed the county’s investment portfolio and issued bonds to pay for infrastructure and other capital projects.

As auditor, Galloway’s office found former Attorney General Josh Hawley, now a U.S. senator, may have misused state resources to boost his Senate campaign. Hawley said Galloway’s findings showed political bias.

Galloway has said she’s acted as an independent watchdog and gone after both Democrats and Republicans who broke the public trust.

“I will always be a relentless advocate for Missouri and the working men and women who move it forward,” she said Friday.

This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 10:57 AM.