51ºÚÁÏ

“The office needs stability,� Bailey told reporters when he was announced as the 44th person to hold the seat the day before Thanksgiving 2022.

“We know he’s the right man for the job, not just for the next two years, but beyond,� Parson added.

That “beyond� lasted just eight months after Bailey was sworn in to a full term in January.

Bailey, 44, announced Monday he is joining President Donald Trump’s administration as co-deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His final day as Missouri attorney general is Sept. 8.

Former Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway is stepping into the vacant post with the same questions hovering over her head that met Bailey when he was introduced as the state’s new chief legal officer.

During a press conference with Gov. Mike Kehoe on Tuesday, Hanaway, 61, said she planned to finish the remaining three years of Bailey’s term and is interested in running for a full term in 2028, presumably sharing a ticket with the governor.

Democrats took notice of the ongoing revolving door.

In a social media post, Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, wrote, “Congratulations to Missouri’s fourth attorney general in six years, I hope this one doesn’t flee Missouri for Washington D.C. the first chance she gets.�

Familiar pattern

Bailey’s looming departure follows a script written by his predecessors: File headline-grabbing lawsuits, show unwavering support for Trump and build a brand to springboard toward higher office.

It started with Josh Hawley. In 2017, less than a year into his term as attorney general, Hawley announced he would run for U.S. Senate, despite airing an ad during his 2016 campaign that he would not use the attorney general’s office as a stepping stone.

In the ad, which featured pictures of ladders, Hawley shamed “career politicians just climbing the ladder, using one office to get another.�

Republican Eric Schmitt replaced Hawley and spent his abbreviated tenure suing former President Joe Biden more than two dozen times and fighting against COVID-19 mitigation measures such as masks and business closings. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022.

Using the Hawley-Schmitt blueprint, Bailey put transgender medical care, abortion and other culture war issues at the top of his to-do list.

He pursued numerous legal challenges against Biden on a variety of policies, including student loan forgiveness, immigration and environmental rules.

Bailey also threatened legal action against private gyms over bathroom gender policies and called on schools to ban drag shows.

He pledged his allegiance to Trump, alleging the 2020 presidential election was “absolutely stolen.�

The focus on hot-button subjects kept his name in the news and helped him win election to a full, four-year term in 2024.

Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia, said Bailey’s legal record as attorney general “is at best mixed.�

“He was always willing to undertake high-profile legal cases, even if they were legally dubious,� Squire said. “As a result, he lost as many cases as he won.�

Bailey was more successful, Squire added, when it came to projecting an image to appeal to MAGA Republicans.

“He never derailed the abortion rights measure that the voters passed (in November,) but he managed to impede it to a great extent,� Squire said.

Bailey also unsuccessfully attempted to use the state’s emergency rule-making process to ban transgender medical care for children and adults.

The maneuver raised questions because he based the new regulations on a consumer protection law typically used to ensure people are not ripped off by retailers.

“That was a stretch,� former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Wolff said.

Bailey, he said, merely picked up where Hawley and Schmitt left off.

Rather than focus on more traditional business such as criminal appeals, worker compensation violations and offering legal advice to local governments, the office became more political.

“It became more about fighting the culture wars on behalf of the people. Maybe not for all of us, but at least for some of us,� Wolff said.

In doing so, Wolff said Bailey pushed the limits of the law, including taking allegations of election violations to a grand jury to garner a theft indictment of 51ºÚÁÏ County Executive Sam Page.

“I don’t think it’s saying much to say the indictment on Sam Page was overreach,� Wolff said, suggesting that Page’s use of tax dollars to inform voters about a ballot question is different than taking tax dollars and pocketing them for personal use.

Ongoing battles

There also were missteps.

Last year, Bailey dismissed a lawsuit against Jackson County over its property tax assessment process to avoid being questioned about his contact with a county official that may have violated legal ethics rules.

As he introduced Hanaway on Tuesday, Kehoe praised Bailey’s service, saying, “Andrew and his team have worked hard … to truly make Missouri a national leader in protecting our freedoms, our constitution and upholding the rule of law.�

The constantly changing leadership may have negative long-term effects, said Jefferson City attorney Chuck Hatfield, who was former Attorney General Jay Nixon’s chief of staff for a decade.

“If you’ve got turnover at the top, it produces instability throughout the organization,� Hatfield said. “It’s really hard to get the stability needed to train people and have institutional knowledge and an office culture.�

A request for an interview with Bailey was denied. A spokeswoman said Bailey is not taking questions from news media.

As attorney general, Bailey leaves behind unfinished business.

After Missouri lawmakers failed to enact an age verification law for pornography sites on the internet, Bailey issued a rule change that will require companies to comply with age checks beginning in October.

Similar attempts in other states have been met with lawsuits from tech companies, but the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year upheld an age verification law in Texas that is similar to what Bailey wants in Missouri.

The Missouri change will require websites to confirm the age of users both through the site and on the device accessing the site. The rule requires all identifying information to be deleted once an age is verified and allows Missouri to enforce state laws prohibiting the distribution of pornography to minors.

Bailey also leaves amid an ongoing court battle over whether and when abortions can resume fully in Missouri.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled 7-0 earlier this month that Bailey filed an appeal of an abortion case in the wrong court, dealing a setback to his efforts.

Despite 52% of Missouri voters supporting the restoration of abortion rights during the November 2024 election, Bailey has continued to press for limits on the procedure because the constitutional amendment approved by voters did not directly repeal myriad state laws banning or regulating abortion that had been put in place by successive Republican-led General Assemblies.

In early July, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang issued an order halting the state requirements, including a law requiring two appointments, 72 hours apart, to obtain abortion services and that women be required to read material on fetal development.

Focus on crime

Hanaway on Tuesday suggested that she will carry on with what Bailey started.

“I have a long history of being pro-life,� Hanaway said. “Like ... many women we had some infertility struggles. I’m empathetic to that, but I believe in the sanctity of human life.�

Abortion Action Missouri, which advocates for abortion access, cheered Bailey’s pending departure for what it described as a “previously non-existent role with the FBI.�

“After losing to Planned Parenthood in Missouri once again, (the) disgraced AG earns a participation ribbon from the Trump Administration. As obsessed as Bailey has proven to be with young girls’ bodies, I can think of no one more qualified to join the team tasked with burying the Epstein files,� Abortion Action Executive Director Mallory Schwarz said.

Bailey also is enmeshed in the removal of two 51ºÚÁÏ-area politicians from office.

After successfully moving to oust former 51ºÚÁÏ City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner for mismanagement soon after he took office, Bailey set his sights on 51ºÚÁÏ Sheriff Alfred Montgomery and Page.

Hanaway did not address issues facing Page over his use of tax dollars to campaign against a ballot question, but said Montgomery gets no reprieve in light of nepotism charges and allegations of financial mismanagement.

“I definitely will continue to pursue the case involving the sheriff,� she said.

Also pending is Bailey’s longshot bid to extract a $24 billion settlement out of China over pandemic-era supply chain issues. The case was brought by Schmitt and won during Bailey’s tenure, but experts say there is no way to require China to pay.

Hatfield said Bailey did not seem to have one area of the law that he wanted to improve to help Missourians.

“He was a good soldier in the MAGA war, but he wasn’t much of a leader. He just did whatever the flavor of the day was in the MAGA world,� Hatfield said. “A lot of his legacy is just being contrary to what Joe Biden wanted.�

After six years and three attorneys general, House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, said she hopes Hanaway moves the office in a different direction by serving as a “competent and professional attorney general who will defend the rights of all Missourians instead of wasting taxpayer money on frivolous culture war lawsuits that regularly get laughed out of court.�

Hanaway said she is not sure if her management style will differ from her predecessors.

As for her focus, it will be on crime, mirroring Kehoe’s campaign pledge.

“It is the No. 1 problem facing our state,� Hanaway said.