Eric Schmitt is close with the Trump administration. What does that mean for Missouri?
Four days before the November election, Sen. Eric Schmitt sat with former President Donald Trump on “Trump Force One” as they flew across the country in a final campaign blitz.
Schmitt had spent the past year serving as an eager surrogate for the campaign. He went toe to toe with reporters on cable news. He met with Trump to talk policy ahead of the first presidential debate. He golfed with Trump. He fired up crowds at rallies.
Now, with Trump set to return to the White House, Schmitt is poised to benefit from a close relationship with the new administration.
The Missouri Republican is friends with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, several of his allies have been tapped for prominent positions in the administration and insider Washington publications have listed Schmitt among the most influential lawmakers with the incoming administration.
While Schmitt was considered to be the next U.S. Attorney General, he pulled himself from consideration in order to stay in the Senate, where for the past two years he has railed against Democratic leadership and stood in firm opposition to much of the Biden administration’s agenda.
“It was an honor, honestly to be considered and to be thought of that way,” Schmitt told the Star. “But for me, I got elected two years ago to represent the people of Missouri and I want to do that. I want to spend the next four years working on the agenda items that were part of the mandate that the American people gave President Trump.”
Now, with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, Schmitt is among a group of younger, hard-line Republicans who have bet big on Trump’s political comeback. They’re readying to try and turn Trump’s populist agenda into tangible policy, granting a first-term lawmaker political capital in an institution that has long been known to value seniority.
“Knowing people in an administration, from the president and those who surround a president, that has value,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican.
Schmitt has said he wants to use his influence to help the Trump administration with judicial nominations – not just to fill roles that have sat empty in Missouri over the past few years, but to help reshape the federal judiciary with more conservative judges.
Even though he doesn’t serve on the Senate committee responsible for approving judicial nominees, having sway with the administration could give him more of a say in that area, which can shape federal policy long past a single presidential administration.
Shaping the judiciary
When Schmitt pulled himself out of the running to become the country’s top law enforcement officer, his announcement made clear that he still planned to have a say in the courts.
“It’s not hard to figure out that the work that Trump’s first administration did along the lines of Judicial Appointments is probably going to continue in earnest,” said Pat McInerney, a former member of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Kansas City.
“And I mean if his first administration had a lasting legacy, it’s the judiciary. He appointed hundreds and hundreds of federal judges and a third of the Supreme Court.”
Schmitt’s input on the federal judiciary would be somewhat unusual. While he is a lawyer and served as Missouri Attorney General, Schmitt doesn’t serve on the Senate committee that gets first say on approving judicial nominees.
Hawley, Missouri’s senior senator, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, declined to comment on Schmitt’s influence.
Typically, Senators only get to help determine their own state’s judicial nominees – a role Schmitt and Sen. Josh Hawley have used to block President Joe Biden from appointing several judges to the state’s federal courts over the past two years.
But Schmitt said his input wouldn’t be limited to just the judicial nominees for Missouri. Instead, he hopes to have a say in most nominations.
Politicization of the courts
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, has been frustrated that Biden hasn’t been able to confirm any judges or other judicial appointments in Missouri, like a U.S. Marshall for the Kansas City area.
Cleaver expressed concern about the polarization of the federal court system at a time when the public appears to be losing trust in the courts to be non-partisan. He said he looks forward to working with Schmitt on the issue and hopes that he will help appoint nominees that are not too extreme.
“I think there are those who are intentionally trying to disfigure the judicial system in the eyes of the American public,” Cleaver said. “And it happens almost every single day, something that will discourage people from believing in our judicial system in this country.”
While serving as Missouri Attorney General, Schmitt helped launch several lawsuits against the Biden administration in an attempt to peel back policy. In joining a lawsuit against Biden’s plan to forgive student debt, Missouri ended up playing a crucial role in the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the plan.
Schmitt said that type of influence, where the courts play a crucial role in determining whether policy is allowed, is key for helping to peel back power from the executive branch and give it back to Congress.
“That’s where a lot of these fights are fought, ultimately,” Schmitt said. “In federal district courts and appellate courts and ultimately the Supreme Court. And so I think there’s a real opportunity, I think, to get a level reset and get judges to respect the rule of law.”
Vote for ERIC
Schmitt’s first attempt to win over Trump didn’t come so easily.
He was among a crowded field of Republican candidates jockeying to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, and each of them was pushing for a Trump endorsement, the ultimate seal of approval in a Republican primary in Trump country. Candidates made visits to Mar-A-Lago, hired campaign consultants in Trump’s inner circle and made appeals to Trump as he considered which campaign to bless.
Schmitt appeared in a strong position for an endorsement as the campaign reached the finish line. He had knee-capped Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who was endorsed by Hawley, and Republicans had started to coalesce around his campaign in an effort to block the controversial former Gov. Eric Greitens from winning the seat.
But the night before the election, Trump decided not to endorse Schmitt outright, instead saying he was endorsing “ERIC,” the shared first name of Schmitt and Greitens.
Schmitt didn’t take it personally. He claimed the endorsement as his own, won the primary and went on to easily win the general election. Schmitt was among the first senators to back Trump’s bid to regain the presidency, offering his endorsement less than a month after taking office.
He then spent the next two years “being helpful” to Trump’s campaign.
“We’ve just gotten to know each other,” Schmitt said. “I try to be helpful. That was my only goal. I wanted him to win, I wanted us to take the majority, we were able to do that.”
His loyalty has won Trump’s support in a way that Jean Evans, the former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, said could help set Schmitt up for a long political career.
“I think it’s good for him, and then also good for Missouri.” Evans said. “And he’s very capable. He’s young. He has a huge, very bright future.”
Missouri influence
Schmitt may have the ear of the administration, but he’s not the only Missourian who may play an outsized role in Washington over the next four years.
Trump has picked several Missourians to serve in his administration, from lawyers like D. John Sauer and Will Scharf, to former Rep. Billy Long, a Springfield Republican who was chosen last week to serve as the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
Several Missourians in the House are also poised to lead influential committees. Rep. Jason Smith, a Salem Republican, leads the House Ways and Means Committee. That committee is responsible for setting tax policy in a year where there will be a strong push to renew Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Another Missourian – Rep. Sam Graves, a Tarkio Republican – is running for a second term as the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“I think this is the most prominence Missouri has had in Washington since Harry Truman was president,” said Rep. Mark Alford, a Lake Winnebago Republican.
But while several Missourians appear poised to benefit from a second Trump term, Hawley has attracted less attention.
He said before the election that he wasn’t interested in serving in a Trump administration. It appears Trump listened. Where other Republican members of Missouri’s congressional delegation – and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey – were considered for roles in the administration, Hawley’s name has not come up.
Instead, Hawley has been adamantly supporting Trump’s political appointments ahead of the Senate’s role in confirming nominees. As some Senators have expressed concern over the nominations of former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who withdrew himself from consideration as Attorney General, and Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, Hawley has been steadfast in his support.
“He doesn’t have to lobby me,” Hawley said of Trump. “I’ve been very public about it, my presumption is that I’ll support all of his nominees.”
