By Joe Lakin
I’ve known Scott Fitzpatrick since he was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. After first running for office at 24 years old, he started making an impact at the State Capitol the day he arrived. We also quickly learned that he is absolutely fearless. He took on tough fights from the beginning and more often than not, he won them. It’s why he was immediately on track to be Budget Chair which ultimately led to his appointment as Missouri’s State Treasurer.
After being appointed to the Treasurer’s office by Governor Parson in 2019, Scott won his first statewide election in 2020. That campaign laid the groundwork for his 2022 campaign for State Auditor. Like any campaign, running for Auditor started with exhaustive discussions. There was no question Scott would be a great fit for the job. His public service, advocacy for taxpayers, and phenomenal record of results made him the perfect candidate. After discussing the impact on his family and how he wanted to make an impact for taxpayers, he made the decision to run in July of 2021.
One thing you need to know about Scott Fitzpatrick is that he has an incredible work ethic and he is incredibly disciplined. He started a boat dock manufacturing and construction company in high school that he had to manage out of his dorm room in college. While far too many campaign postmortems oversimplify what made a candidate successful, but this campaign really came down to the culmination of daily wins, discipline and consistency.
To start this campaign, we knew we had to do the basic things well; an effective finance operation, a disciplined candidate, and efficient operations that minimize waste of time, talent, and treasure. Through a unified team effort, we accomplished those things. The campaign was supported by more than $1 million in paid media, underwritten by a strict and precise budget that focused on effective campaign methodology.
Victory Enterprises has been Scott’s comprehensive campaign partner since his time in the State House. We provide media, digital, and research alongside strategic consulting and hands-on campaign management. We are appreciative of the trust he has placed in us over the course of our partnership and it’s been a heck of a run from the Missouri House to being past a difficult primary for State Auditor.
While he ultimately won the race by 30 percent, public polling consistently showed a low double-digit lead. We knew we could not take anything for granted. But in spite of the public polling showing a fairly close race with significant undecideds, our internal polling showed that our messaging would overwhelmingly earn the support of primary voters. Combined with Scott’s early advantages in Springfield and St. Louis, we knew if we had the resources necessary to deliver our message, our geographic and messaging advantages would be too much for our opponent to overcome.
One unique feature of this campaign was that it was run exclusively on his success in, both, business and public service. As the adage goes, “good policy makes good politics.” Scott is proof. While many candidates try to recreate themselves during the course of a campaign, we were able to build a message on Scott’s record of success and found it was overwhelmingly compelling to voters, both, in polling and the results on election day showed that the polling was spot on.
Ultimately, Scott won every county in the state and won the race 65-35% even with an opponent that spent nearly $1 million on the campaign. As his consulting partner on this race, Victory Enterprises couldn’t be more proud to work with Scott Fitzpatrick for Missouri State Auditor. Keep an eye on this guy. The sky is the limit.
Video: https://youtu.be/5D4aNei_GUw