Live Results: Republican state attorney general Eric Schmitt wins Missouri Senate race against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine

• Republican state attorney general Eric Schmitt won against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine to represent Missouri in the US Senate.

• Schmitt's win will keep a red Senate seat red in the footsteps of his predecessor Sen. Roy Blunt.

Republican Eric Schmitt won the Missouri Senate seat against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine. Polls closed at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the red state.

Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, who has represented Missouri in the US Senate since 2011, announced he would not seek reelection to a third term, leaving the seat vacant. Schmitt's win means the red Senate seat will stay in GOP hands.

Missouri's US Senate race candidates

Schmitt serves as the attorney general of Missouri, a position he was appointed to by Republican Gov. Mike Parsons following former Attorney General Josh Hawley's election to the US Senate.

Prior to being appointed attorney general, Schmitt served as state treasurer and state senator.

Valentine, Schmitt's opponent, is an heiress of the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune. She was among 22 self-funding candidates who together pumped more than $435 million into 2022 midterm races.

Valentine personally invested significant amounts of her wealth in health insurance companies while pledging to "stand up" to health insurers, as Insider reported in July.

Missouri's voting history

The state voted for then-President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden by a margin of about 15 percentage points in the 2020 election. Missouri has consecutively voted Republican in the last six presidential elections.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Schmitt raised $5.7 million, spent $5.4 million, and had $279,234 cash on hand, as of October 19.

His opponent, Valentine, raised $12 million, spent $11.6 million, and had $327,578 cash on hand, as of October 19. Valentine has mostly self-funded her campaign.

As of November 7, several dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had combined to spend about $31.4 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's highly contested primary phase.

What experts say

The race between Schmitt and Valentine was rated as "solid Republican" by Inside Elections, "solid Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "safe Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

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