After bitter campaign, Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick wins state auditor primary
Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick defeated state Rep. David Gregory Tuesday in the bitter Republican primary race to succeed Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway as the GOP looks to flip a position 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 vowed to get rid of wasteful spending and root out financial fraud.
The Associated Press called the race for Fitzpatrick at 10:15 p.m. According to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, he had 64% of the vote with 3,256 of 3,592 precincts reporting.
Gregory, first elected to the Missouri House in 2016, received 36% of the vote.
Galloway, who announced last year that she would not seek reelection after her unsuccessful run for governor, is Missouri’s lone Democratic statewide officeholder.
Fitzpatrick now represents Republicans’ choice to 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.
He will face two opponents in the general election. Former state Rep. Alan Green of Florissant is running as a Democrat, while John Hartwig Jr., a certified public accountant from St. Charles, is running as a Libertarian.
In the race’s final weeks, Fitzpatrick and Gregory, neither of whom are certified public accountants, sparred over whether their opponent was experienced enough for the position and attacked the other for inflating their financial expertise. While being an accountant is not a requirement, Galloway, the incumbent state auditor, is a CPA.
The auditor’s office serves as Missouri’s top financial watchdog agency in charge of conducting 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.
While Gregory’s campaign promoted rhetoric around conservative social issues like a plan to audit school district curriculum, he failed to gain major support against Fitzpatrick who heavily touted his entrepreneurial background.
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 one of his main 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. He also said he would conduct audits of under-performing schools to figure out how to fund them so students can be successful.
