Catherine Hanaway will succeed Andrew Bailey as the next attorney general of Missouri, according to a Tuesday announcement by Governor Mike Kehoe.
After just over two years in his position as co-deputy director of the FBI, Bailey, 44, resigned on Monday.
The 61-year-old Hanaway will be the fourth Missouri attorney general since 2018, after her three predecessors resigned early to take jobs in Washington, D.C. She will hold the position for the first time ever as a woman.
She has the option to serve out Bailey’s term, which expires at the end of 2028. She informed reporters on Tuesday that she intends to run for a full term of her own in three years.
“I definitely intend to serve for the next three years, and if Missourians vote for me and think I deserve a full term, then I would like to serve a full term,” she stated.
In order to join the Trump administration, Andrew Bailey resigned as Missouri’s attorney general.
Hanaway, the first and only female speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, was a former federal prosecutor. She lost to Democrat Robin Carnahan in her 2004 bid for secretary of state and placed fourth in the Republican primary for governor in her 2016 unsuccessful bid for statewide office.
Following her departure from public life, Hanaway concentrated on her legal career and rose to the position of partner at the Husch Blackwell. She made waves in 2018 when she joined the legal team representing Eric Greitens’ campaign committee, the guy who defeated her in the tumultuous 2016 GOP primary.
Grain Belt Express, a projected transmission line intended to move electricity produced by Kansas wind farms throughout four states, including Missouri, has been her most well-known customer in recent years.
The transmission line, which has been under construction for over ten years, has come under heavy fire from Republican lawmakers and agricultural organizations such as the Missouri Farm Bureau due to the company’s use of eminent domain to evict and compensate uncooperative landowners.
Among these detractors is Bailey, who has targeted the project using the attorney general’s office.
Hanaway is the principal attorney for Grain Belt Express, which filed a lawsuit against the attorney general’s office last month over a demand to turn over documents.
In a statement last month, Hanaway stated that Grain Belt Express aims to terminate the (attorney general’s) illegal and politically driven probe.
Hanaway announced on Tuesday that she will step aside and that the attorney general’s inquiry into Grain Belt will continue.
She asserted that the team, which is excellent, will be able to proceed without my involvement. It has a fantastic team that will keep up their good work.
Hanaway highlighted her rural beginnings in an interview with reporters following Kehoe’s announcement of her appointment, pointing out that the dorm she moved into while attending the University of Missouri was larger than her Nebraska hamlet.
“To accept this appointment, I am incredibly humbled,” she remarked.
She outlined what she believes the attorney general’s office should do, stating that the most crucial duty is to shield Missourians from those who would use violence against them, defraud them through financial schemes, mistreat them by giving them subpar care while receiving Medicaid reimbursement, and attempt to violate their constitutional rights.
Citing her prior experience as a U.S. attorney, she stated that combating crime will continue to be her top priority.
According to her, she learned from the late Kit Bond, a former governor of Missouri and U.S. Senator, that people don’t care how much you know until they realize how much you care.
“As attorney general, I swear to you that I will do everything in my power,” she stated. I’ll be creative. I’ll change with the times. Above all, though, I will demonstrate my concern for Missourians.
We’ll be updating this story.
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