For a few hours on Wednesday, Andrew Bailey was considered among the frontrunners to be nominated as President-elect Donald Trump’s next U.S. attorney general.
Just a week after winning his first full term as Missouri attorney general, Bailey reportedly spent time with Trump at Mar-a-Lago interviewing for the job, according to numerous sources close to the attorney general and multiple media reports.
But by Wednesday afternoon, Trump made his choice official, and it wasn’t Bailey. Instead, he tapped Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to lead his Justice Department.
A spokeswoman for Bailey did not respond to a request for comment.
Bailey had never run for public office before Missouri Gov. Mike Parson tapped him to replace Schmitt as attorney general in 2022. At the time, he was serving as Parson’s general counsel. He previously worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Warren County and as an assistant attorney general.
He is an army veteran that was awarded two Army Achievement Medals, an Army Accommodation Medal, a Combat Action Badge and two Bronze Star Medals for his service.
His time as attorney general has been defined by confrontation — lawsuits against the federal government, investigations of health care providers and public fights with other statewide elected Republicans.
His most high-profile cases since becoming attorney general include twice suing to block federal student loan forgiveness and carrying forward a lawsuit alleging the Biden administration was colluding with social media companies to censor conservative speech.
His office is involved in four different lawsuits regarding medical records of transgender children — part of his effort to end gender-affirming care in Missouri. And Bailey has claimed credit for the closure of Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Bailey has also been unflinchingly loyal to Trump, including publicly endorsing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and unsuccessfully attempting to intervene in the criminal case against him in New York that resulted in 34 felony convictions.
According to Reuters, loyalty to the president-elect — and a willingness to wholeheartedly advance Trump’s agenda of mass deportations and retribution against his political enemies — was the determining factor in who would become the next attorney general.
In that regard, Bailey couldn’t compete with Gaetz, who was among the most outspoken supporters of Trump.
“Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the department to its true mission of fighting crime and upholding our democracy and constitution,” Trump said in a prepared statement announcing his pick.
Bailey’s tenure as Missouri attorney general has been marked by accusations of corruption, incompetence and grandstanding, with his critics alleging he’s more interested in scoring appearances on Fox News than effectively running the sprawling office or winning in the courtroom.
The state Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that lawmakers could not end Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood through the state budget. In its ruling, the court found Bailey’s office failed to appeal the claim that the budget decision infringed on equal protection rights, the Associated Press reported.
Among the many lawsuits Bailey inherited from his predecessor was a case against Missouri school districts that implemented mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a judge ruled in support of the school boards, Bailey’s office missed its deadline to appeal.
This summer, he narrowly avoided being questioned under oath about his contact with a defendant in his own case against Jackson County. One of Bailey’s deputies lost his license because of the meetings, according to a filing from the county’s attorneys.
Bailey was also the focus of a formal complaint about the behavior of his office after he falsely blamed the Hazelwood School District’s diversity, equity and inclusion program for the off-campus assault of a student.
But the most pointed criticism he’s faced involve campaign donations.
Bailey recused himself from a gambling lawsuit filed against the Missouri State Highway Patrol after PACs connected to the lobbyist of the companies suing the state wrote checks to the committee supporting his campaign.
He raised eyebrows after accepting $50,000 in campaign donations from Doe Run, a St. Louis-based company being sued by thousands of Peruvians over allegations of lead smelter poisoning in their mining town in the Andes. A few months before the donation, Bailey filed a brief asking the federal court to move the lawsuit out of Missouri.
Bailey shrugs off the criticism, telling The Independent earlier this year that “political donations don’t influence the decisions I make in my official capacity.”
This story was updated with news of President-elect Trump picking Matt Gaetz as his attorney general.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
