Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey surprised his supporters and opponents when he announced this month he was leaving his post to become co-deputy director of the FBI.
Those who have watched Bailey closely say he possesses the right combination of honorable personal characteristics and an eye for attention-grabbing issues to develop a significant presence in national politics. He's also shown his loyalty to President Donald Trump, including filing lawsuits as attorney general that sought to help him and his allies.
"Andrew Bailey's sterling when it comes to his background," said St. Louis University law professor Anders Walker. "He's what Eric Greitens could have been if Greitens hadn't gotten involved in an illicit affair. And compared to people like [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth, who was plagued with all kinds of scandalous accusations, there's nothing I think anyone can get on Andrew Bailey."
Bailey's potential to have a long tenure on the national level worries his critics who contend he politicized his office as a means to help his professional career.
And given that the FBI possesses massive power to investigate Americans, they add that may not be the type of characteristics the beleaguered agency needs right now.
"There were times in the postwar period and in the '60s when the FBI was quite active in domestic activities that it should not have been involved," said former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff. "And I think he'd be well to read the history of the FBI and understand where it came from, where it's gone, and some of the outstanding people that work there. Many very fine people have devoted their professional lives to the organization. And they're not cultural warriors. They are crime fighters."
Rapid rise in state politics
Bailey, 44, who is not doing interviews before he leaves his post in early September, grew up in Columbia. He said last year during an episode of the Politically Speaking podcast that he wanted to make a difference in a place that meant so much to himself and his family.
"I care about this state because it's home," Bailey said. "I got to grow up in a Missouri that enjoyed freedom, safety, prosperity. I want my kids, your listeners, kids and grandkids, to get to enjoy those things as well. And if we don't have people who are willing to put their names on the line and stand up in the ring and fight back, we're going to lose those things."
He served two tours in Iraq as an armored cavalry officer, an experience he said in 2024 made an indelible mark on how he viewed public service.
"This is the Show-Me State. Results matter," Bailey said. "Politicians do a lot of talking. I like to get to work, and I like to produce results. And certainly that was what was required of me on the battlefield in Iraq. And if I didn't do my job, people were going to get hurt."
When he came back to Missouri, he worked as a security guard in St. Louis at the city's family court juvenile division before getting his law degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He eventually worked in the Warren County prosecutor's office, including representing that rural county's juvenile office.
He said in 2024 that experience dealing with cases where children faced danger inspired him and his wife to become foster parents.
"We've been blessed to have adopted kiddos," Bailey said. "And so, when you go from no kids to multiple kids overnight, suddenly I started adding up my bills and realized I couldn't afford to be an assistant prosecutor anymore."
Bailey became general counsel for the Department of Corrections on June 1, 2018 – the day Gov. Mike Parson was sworn into office. He eventually joined Parson's staff, working his way up to the GOP chief executive's general counsel. After then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt won his U.S. Senate seat, Parson appointed him to serve out the rest of Schmitt's term.
Former Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden met Bailey when the future attorney general was still in law school. He said he found Bailey to be a "likeable person" who was willing to converse with his political opponents.
"In today's era where you do have to, I think, in positions like that yell a little bit louder at times, maybe than you want to, it's good to still be a likable human being and a genuine human being, which I think most people think he is," Rowden said.
A high-profile tenure
During his more than two years in office, Bailey made a number of high-profile moves. That included going after St. Louis public officials.
One of his first significant endeavors was trying to oust St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner for mismanagement. Gardner ended up resigning before a judge could rule on Bailey's removal motion. He also sought to remove St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery from office, an effort that's still pending.
Most recently, a judge appointed Bailey's office as a special prosecutor in a case involving St. Louis County Executive Sam Page. A grand jury indicted Page for using public money to send a mailer on Proposition P, an unsuccessful effort to allow members of the county council to remove department heads.
Bailey also gained nationwide attention when he sued Starbucks and IBM for their racial diversity initiatives. He also assisted Elon Musk in his legal campaign against Media Matters, a left-of-center media watchdog group that was fiercely critical of Musk's stewardship of X.
Walker, the St. Louis University law professor, said Bailey showed a real knack in finding issues that resonated with the public – and with the state's conservative voters.
"I expect that he'll come up with new issues, new investigations," Walker said. "And this is something he's proven very good at – to keep the content going, to keep himself in the news and to sort of creatively use his position to generate headlines."
Because both FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have been under fire for their leadership of the agency, Walker said it's not too much of a stretch that Bailey could move up sooner rather than later.
And he also said that Bailey could represent the next phase of the Republican Party, which will find itself at a crossroads when Trump's second term ends in 2029.
"I think that's the question in the White House, which is who comes next," Walker said. "And part of that, I think, is, can we get some sterling conservatives in there who are not going to be embroiled in personal scandal, who can sort of carry the torch into the future against the Democrats, who are going to come out swinging in three years?"
'I like to break things'
State Sen. Stephen Webber first met Bailey when he was a teenager growing up in Columbia. While Bailey was a couple of years older than the Democratic lawmaker, Webber crossed paths with him while they were both involved in the high school debate circuit.
Webber recalls that Bailey was asked by someone in his introduction to debate class whether he preferred to be on the affirmative or negative side of an argument.
"A lot of kids like affirmative because you have your case written out and it's easier," Webber said. "And Andrew Bailey said, 'I like negative,' and then he paused and said: 'Because I like to break things.'"
Critics like Webber contend Bailey took frivolous and legally questionable action as attorney general, primarily to burnish his social conservative credentials and to ingratiate himself with Trump.
One high-profile example is how Bailey sued the State of New York alleging election interference after a jury there found Trump guilty of falsifying his business records. He also has agreed with Trump's decision to take over the California National Guard amid protests there over immigration enforcement.
Bailey also clashed with Missouri Republicans on several fronts. He unsuccessfully tried to place restrictions for transgender adults from getting access to hormone therapy and gender-affirmation surgery. That proved to be too much even for conservative Republicans, like state Sen. Nick Schroer of St. Charles County.
He said in 2023 that while he supported prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors, he didn't think it was the government's role to place barriers in front of transgender adults.
"And I think ultimately if you were an adult and you're 20 or 30 years old and become like Bruce Jenner – a male Olympic athlete and not you want to become female – that's on you," Schroer said.
Bailey and state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick also clashed over a fiscal impact note for Amendment 3, the initiative that legalized abortion throughout Missouri. Bailey tried to argue that the initiative would cost billions of dollars because of lost taxpayer revenue from people who would never be born.
The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Bailey had no right to overrule Fitzpatrick on developing fiscal notes. Webber said the case was indicative of everything that was wrong about Bailey's tenure as attorney general.
"That's a perfect encapsulation of where politics has gone in the Trump era," Webber said. "It's completely legitimate to have policy disagreements and to have policy debates, but they need to be grounded in something. And that fiscal note wasn't grounded in anything. It was purely performative."
Abortion rights a flashpoint
Since Amendment 3 passed, Bailey's office has been in charge of defending many of the state's abortion restrictions against lawsuits.
Those efforts have been largely unsuccessful, as Missouri's Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia are offering abortions. Medication abortions remain on hold at those facilities because of a legal dispute over what's known as a complication plan.
Margot Riphagen of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action said Bailey tried to salvage abortion restrictions that voters firmly rejected.
"His entire goal here was to sow confusion, to overturn the will of the people and to not protect those who are most vulnerable," Riphagen said "So when I think about what's going to happen on a national scale, it's going to be, you know, 10 times worse. It's going to be exactly more of the same nationally."
Riphagen said it's not out of the question that Bailey could focus on some of the issues that defined his attorney general tenure. That could include using the FBI to launch investigations against abortion clinics or hospitals that provide gender-affirming care.
"He spent his time here seeking to overturn the will of Missouri voters, causing whiplash for patients trying to seek abortions, and really sowing immeasurable confusion," Riphagen said. "So we have seen that pattern over and over again here in Missouri, and we know that's also what we can anticipate on a national level."
Rowden said that since Bailey is entering the FBI in a subordinate role, he'll have to follow what Patel wants him to do. He also said that Trump will be the most important driver of Bailey's job responsibilities.
"I think you can look at what he's done," Rowden said. "But at the end of the day, Trump runs a show. And if Trump says jump, most of them are going to say how high."
A shaky or bright future?
During his 2024 Politically Speaking interview, Bailey was asked if he would publicly oppose Trump if he declared that he could run for a third term in 2028, which is prohibited in the U.S. Constitution.
Bailey replied: "Of course."
"I believe that the rules of the game matter, and that we should be promoting the rules of the game and that it serves rule of law principles," Bailey said.
Rowden said that Bailey's principle should help him if he's pressured to do something that he feels is illegal or unconstitutional.
"I think he'll have to fight some tendencies from time to time, to be pushed and pulled certain ways," Rowden said. "But I think he's got a strong enough base and a strong enough group of support folks around him that I think he'll be fine."
But Webber questions whether Bailey will ultimately move up in the Trump administration. At least one former Missouri politician found that out the hard way.
Earlier this summer, national news outlets reported that former Missouri Congressman Billy Long lost his job as IRS commissioner after he tangled with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett over turning over taxpayer information.
Webber said that precedent fuels confusion among Bailey's foes and friends about why he took the FBI position in the first place.
"You put yourself at the whims of a guy who does not care about you," Webber said. "You could be out of a job by Christmas, and you're done in Missouri politics."
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