A month out from the 2024 election, Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri is already thinking about 2026.
The Missouri senator has begun feeling out his GOP colleagues on a bid to become chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee next cycle, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
“Most people expect Schmitt to run for NRSC chair,” one senior GOP aide told NOTUS. “He’s been talking to senators about it. He’d lock it up pretty easily if he decided to pull the trigger.”
Additionally, people close to the Missouri senator have been feeling out lobbyists and donors to see where they would be in supporting Schmitt for NRSC chair.
“Schmitt advisers have been putting out feelers to downtown on support for his candidacy,” another source familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
Less than two years into his first term, Schmitt has seen his stock rise quickly among fellow Republicans. He was given a coveted speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, and one Trumpworld source told NOTUS that among those in Trump’s orbit, “everyone loves him and has been really impressed by him as a senator.”
The source added that Schmitt’s name has also been thrown around for a potential cabinet position in a second Trump administration. (Schmitt is one of Sen. JD Vance’s closest friends in the Senate.)
In order to become Missouri’s junior senator, Schmitt — who previously served as the state’s attorney general — had to escape a contested primary where he faced over 20 opponents, including the scandal-plagued Gov. Eric Greitens and former Rep. Vicky Hartzler.
Trump largely stayed out of the primary until the eve of the election.
“I trust the Great People of Missouri, on this one, to make up their own minds, much as they did when they gave me landslide victories in the 2016 and 2020 Elections, and I am therefore proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump wrote in a statement the day before the election.
Seeing as two of the top candidates in the election shared the first name, both Greitens and Schmitt touted the endorsement in the lead-up to the election.
Schmitt would end up routing the competition, recording 45.6% of the vote with the next closest candidate, Hartzler, receiving 22.1%.
Spokespeople for Schmitt did not respond to a request for comment.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.