Claire Conner McCaskill (; born July 24, 1953) is an American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Missouri from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as state auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007. McCaskill is the most recent Democrat to have represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate.
McCaskill is a native of Rolla, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri and the University of Missouri School of Law. McCaskill served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1983 to 1989, as Jackson County Prosecutor from 1993 to 1998, and as the 34th State Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007. She ran for governor of Missouri in the 2004 election, defeating Democratic incumbent Bob Holden in the Democratic primary and losing to Republican Matt Blunt in a close general election.
McCaskill was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, the first woman to be elected to the chamber from Missouri (Jean Carnahan was appointed upon the death of her husband). Re-elected in 2012, McCaskill was defeated in 2018 by Republican challenger Josh Hawley. Since February 2019, McCaskill has served as a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC. She is also the author of the memoir Plenty Ladylike (2015).
Early life, education, and early law career McCaskill was born in Rolla, Missouri. Her father, William Young McCaskill (1925–1993), served as a state insurance commissioner during the administration of Governor Warren E. Hearnes. Her mother, Betty Anne (née Ward; 1928–2012), was the first woman elected to the city council of Columbia, Missouri. Betty Anne McCaskill lost a race for a seat in the state House of Representatives to Leroy Blunt, the father of former U.S. senator Roy Blunt and grandfather of former Missouri governor Matt Blunt.
McCaskill spent her early childhood in the small Missouri town of Houston, later moving to Lebanon, and, eventually, Columbia. She attended David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, where she was a cheerleader, Pep Club president, a member of the debate club, a musical cast member, and homecoming queen. While attending the University of Missouri, McCaskill joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, graduating in 1975 with a B.A. in political science. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1978. In the summer of 1974, before graduating from the University of Missouri, McCaskill studied at the Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown University.
From the time she graduated from law school in 1978 until her exit from the U.S. Senate in January 2019, McCaskill spent all but three years of her professional career in the public sector. The exception is the three years she spent in private practice as an attorney at a Kansas City law firm (1989 to 1991). Following her graduation from law school, she spent one year as a law clerk on the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, which sits in Kansas City. Thereafter, McCaskill joined the Jackson County prosecutor's office, where she specialized in arson cases.
Early political career
State legislature In 1982, McCaskill was elected to represent the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City in the Missouri House of Representatives. She left the State House and contemplated running for Jackson County Prosecutor in 1988, but did not pursue the position when her mentor, fellow Democrat and incumbent Prosecutor Albert Riederer decided to seek another term.
County politics In 1990, McCaskill was elected to the Jackson County Legislature (the equivalent of a county commission or county council).
In February 1991, she testified in favor of a Missouri Senate bill that would prohibit a man accused of raping his wife from using marriage as a defense."Marriage no defense for rape, panel decides". Associated Press. The Kansas City Star. February 14, 1991. p. C3. "This is simply an issue of fundamental justice. It's embarrassing that we live in a state where it's okay to rape your wife", McCaskill said.
In December 1991, McCaskill announced her intention to run for county prosecutor.Lambe, Joe. "McCaskill goal: Prosecutor County legislator, an ex-assistant to Riederer, wants to lead crime fight". The Kansas City Star. December 19, 1991. At the time of the announcement, Riederer had not announced whether he was going to seek reelection. McCaskill said that crime had "run amok" during Riederer's eleven years as county prosecutor. McCaskill won the Democratic primary,Mannies, Jo. "Women May Have Set Missouri Record". St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 6, 1992. and she went on to win the 1992 general election with 53 percent of the vote.Lambe, Joe. "Jackson County voters pick McCaskill for prosecutor job". The Kansas City Star. November 4, 1992. p. C1. McCaskill was the first woman to serve as prosecutor for Jackson County. She was reelected in 1996 with 71 percent of the vote.Lambe, Joe. "Incumbent remains county prosecutor". The Kansas City Star. November 6, 1996. p. C3.
State auditor
In 1998, McCaskill was elected as state auditorReel, Monte. "Support in KC Lifts Democrat McCaskill to Lead Over Pierce". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. November 4, 1998. p. B10. with 50.3 percent of the vote in the general election."". Missouri Secretary of State Official Election Returns. November 24, 1998. She was the second female to hold the post, the first having been her immediate predecessor, Margaret B. Kelly.
When McCaskill ran for reelection in 2002, the winner of the Republican Party primary was Al Hanson, who had previously been incarcerated for fraud.Stearns, Matt. "GOP disowns auditor nominee", The Kansas City Star, August 8, 2002. Hanson said he was qualified to detect fraud because he had committed fraud himself."McCaskill wins re-election bid for auditor". Jefferson City News-Tribune, November 6, 2002. Because of Hanson's history, the leader of the Missouri Republican Party urged voters not to vote for Hanson in the general election. McCaskill was reelected with 60 percent of the vote."". Missouri Secretary of State Official Election Returns. November 5, 2002.
2004 gubernatorial campaign
McCaskill announced her intent to challenge incumbent governor Bob Holden in the Democratic primary on October 20, 2003.
On August 3, 2004, McCaskill defeated Holden, becoming the first candidate to defeat an incumbent governor in a primary election in state history. McCaskill carried much of the rural outstate, while also carrying areas whose voters had taken issues with Holden's actions, such as in Boone County home to the University of Missouri, which faced cuts under Holden.
On November 2, 2004, McCaskill lost to her Republican opponent, then-Secretary of State Matt Blunt in the general election by a margin of 51% to 48%. McCaskill's loss to Blunt was the first defeat in her twenty-year political career."Urban returns help challenger", The Kansas City Star, November 8, 2006
U.S. Senate
Elections 2006
Both incumbent Jim Talent and McCaskill easily defeated their opponents in their respective primaries on August 8, 2006. McCaskill and Talent debated each other on Meet the Press on October 8, 2006. On November 8, 2006, McCaskill defeated Talent by a margin of 50% to 47% with two minor-party candidates taking the remainder.
2012
McCaskill ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and faced Republican nominee Todd Akin in the general election. Until mid-August, polling showed them running neck and neck. Then, in a television interview on August 12, Akin claimed that women who were the victims of what he described as "legitimate rape" rarely ended up pregnant. His comments caused controversy and he was criticized by members of both parties. He faced calls to withdraw from the race but did not do so, and McCaskill opened up an increasing lead in opinion polls. Akin's comments caused a backlash among voters, particularly women, and McCaskill was re-elected with 55% of the vote to his 39%. Libertarian candidate Jonathan Dine received 6%.
In August 2015, McCaskill penned a Politico article describing how she indirectly helped Akin—who she believed would make a weak general election candidate—win the Republican primary. Specifically, her campaign ran ads during primary season criticizing Akin as being too conservative; McCaskill did this to encourage conservatives (via reverse psychology) to vote for Akin. Washington Post contributor Jonathan Adler and others questioned whether McCaskill's indirect coordination with the Akin campaign constituted an unreported and in-kind contribution to Akin's campaign in violation of federal election law.
2018
McCaskill announced she was running for her third term. Six declared Democratic opponents and five Republicans, including Missouri attorney general Josh Hawley, were declared candidates for the GOP primary. On July 27, The Daily Beast reported that Microsoft had discovered that in September 2017, GRU "Fancy Bear" hackers had attempted spoofing hacks of her staff aides' email in an attempt to target her candidacy efforts, on behalf of the Russian state."Russian Hackers' New Target: a Vulnerable Democratic Senator", The Daily Beast, Andrew Desiderio & Kevin Poulsen, July 26, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018. Less than three weeks before the November general election, conservative group Project Veritas released secretly recorded video footage of statements by McCaskill and her campaign staff that appeared to differ from their public stances on several issues. In response, McCaskill said she had been "very upfront about all my positions", and called on Republican opponent and State Attorney General Hawley to launch an investigation into whether state laws were violated in the capturing and publishing of this footage. On election day, Hawley received 51% of the vote, to McCaskill's 46%. She has said that one of the reasons she lost was her party's lack of reach to rural Americans. McCaskill later said that the "spectacle" her fellow Democrats created during the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court also played a factor in her defeat.
Tenure
McCaskill was the first elected woman to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate. Jean Carnahan was appointed to the Senate following her husband's death and posthumous election, but was defeated in a close election by Jim Talent. In 2006, McCaskill defeated Talent for a full term. In 2011, she became Missouri's senior senator when Roy Blunt took office as the junior Senator.
Political positions Through 2012, McCaskill was named by the National Journal as one of the ten most "moderate" senators. In 2011, she was ranked 50th on its scale of the 100 senators, from most liberal to most conservative. In 2013, the National Journal rated McCaskill's voting record as 53% liberal and 47% conservative. The Washington Post reported in 2012 that she was the second-most-likely Democratic senator to vote against her party. The conservative Americans for Prosperity gave her a 30% score for being in line with their positions in 2016. The progressive Americans for Democratic Action gave her a 65% liberal quotient in 2015. As of 2018, FiveThirtyEight, which tracks congressional votes, found that McCaskill voted with President Donald Trump's position 45% of the time.
2008 presidential election
In January 2008, McCaskill endorsed then-Senator Barack Obama in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, making her one of the first Senators to do so. She was one of the most visible faces for his campaign, and her support was crucial to Obama's narrow victory in the Missouri primary in February 2008. She has credited her daughter Maddie as having persuaded her to publicly endorse Obama. She was frequently mentioned as a possible vice-presidential nominee for Obama, but was never seriously considered. She spoke on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in August 2008.