Fitzpatrick wins second term as state auditor

Republican Scott Fitzpatrick survived the statewide blue wave to claim reelection as Missouri state auditor Tuesday, securing a second four-year term and maintaining his party’s control of every statewide-elected office.
Fitzpatrick defeated Democratic challenger Quentin Wilson in Missouri’s only statewide race on the November ballot.
With 94% of votes counted, Fitzpatrick held a 5% lead over Wilson, totaling approximately 1.05 million votes to Wilson’s approximate 950,000, according to the The Associated Press.
This margin of victory was much closer than in 2022, when Fitzpatrick defeated Democrat Alan Green by 21.8%.
Fitzpatrick’s victory keeps the auditor’s office under Republican control, a position the party has held since he succeeded Democrat Nicole Galloway in January 2023.
Galloway was the last Democrat to win a statewide election in Missouri, securing reelection as auditor in 2018.
Fitzpatrick, who previously served as Missouri’s state treasurer and chaired the Missouri House Budget Committee, first won the auditor’s office in 2022.
During his first term, Fitzpatrick focused on improving operations within the auditor’s office and expanding audits of school districts and local governments.
He pointed to his office’s examination of Jackson County’s property-tax-assessment process and a Medicaid audit that identified about 10,000 duplicate enrollments as examples of its work.
Throughout his reelection campaign, Fitzpatrick said he wanted to shift more attention toward statewide programs, examining how they could operate more efficiently and identifying programs that may no longer serve a purpose.
His second term comes as Missouri faces projected budget shortfalls.
A June report from Fitzpatrick’s office projected the state would spend more than $1.7 billion above general revenue collections in fiscal year 2027. The report also projected the state’s General Revenue Fund would be exhausted early in fiscal year 2028 if those projections hold.