Nicole Galloway

Galloway said that her goals as State Auditor of Missouri are to hold her office and others to the highest professional standards and being accountable to Missourians.[17]

Upon taking the oath of office in 2015, Galloway said one of her first priorities as State Auditor of Missouri would be cybersecurity by making protection of Missourians' private data part of audit procedures for the State Auditor's Office.[18]

As State Auditor of Missouri, Galloway managed about 115 employees. The state auditor's staff is made up of CPAs, with about 65 percent of all audit staff having at least one professional license, certification or advanced degree. Employment as an auditor with the State Auditor's Office qualifies as mandatory experience required for licensure by the Missouri State Board of Accountancy as a certified public accountant.[19]

Additional responsibilities of the State Auditor's Office included serving as the independent, professional watchdog for government. The State Auditor's Office works to ensure the proper use of public funds and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Missouri government by performing audits of state agencies, boards and commissions, the circuit court system, the counties in Missouri that do not have a county auditor, and other political subdivisions upon petition by the voters. These audits examine financial accountability, waste, opportunities for fraud, and whether government organizations and programs are achieving their purposes and operating economically and efficiently.[19]

On September 24, 2018, Auditor Galloway released an audit showing $300,000 missing from the Callaway County Collector's Office from January 2016 to March 2018. The former county collector pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzling the funds.[20]

On March 4, 2019, former Callaway County Collector Pamela Oestreich was sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison without parole for embezzling more than $300,000 from taxpayers in Callaway County.[21]

In 2017, Auditor Galloway released an audit that uncovered a billing scheme in which Putnam County Memorial Hospital billed insurance companies for lab services conducted across the country. The questionable activity began in September 2016, after the Putnam County Hospital Board hired David Byrns and his company, Hospital Partners Inc., to take over day-to-day management of the hospital. The auditor's report uncovered $90 million in inappropriate lab billings. The findings of the audit were covered by national news outlets and resulted in calls for a federal investigation into hospital billing schemes.[22]

Following the audit, dozens of major insurers banded together to file lawsuits against affiliated hospitals in Missouri and other states, demanding hundreds of millions in restitution. The lawsuits describe the lab-billing operation as a "widespread fraudulent scheme".[23]

On June 21, 2017, Auditor Galloway released an audit showing that the city clerk of Viburnum, Missouri stole $100,000.[24] Dana Mayberry served as the Viburnum City Clerk for 14 years. The city identified inconsistencies in accounts she oversaw after she lost her reelection bid in April 2016. At that time, most of the city and municipal division records disappeared in the Iron County town of less than 1,000 residents. Mayberry admitted to stealing city funds, after which the mayor notified the State Auditor's Office. An audit began in August 2016 after the Viburnum Board of Aldermen authorized one. The examination began to uncover a scheme in which the former clerk adjusted customer utility accounts and then destroyed records and other evidence. The former city Clerk was charged with receiving stolen property, a Class B Felony as a result of the audit.[25] On August 15, 2018, the former city Clerk was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay the City of Viburnum $100,000.[26]

In May 2017, the Missouri Alliance for Freedom, a Republican-aligned 501(c)(4) group, submitted three open-records requests to the Office of State Auditor. The requests sought a wide variety of communications, including those specifically concerning the auditor's scrutiny of the Missouri Department of Revenue.[27][28][29] The State Auditor's Office produced approximately 47,000 pages at no charge to Missouri Alliance for Freedom, including 254 screenshots of text messages to and from the state auditor.[28][30]

In 2017, the Missouri Alliance for Freedom sued the State Auditor's Office[31] and filed a complaint with Republican Missouri attorney general Josh Hawley alleging that Galloway "unlawfully withheld public records from her State-provided cell phone."[29] In February 2018, Hawley's office issued a report that found Galloway complied with the Missouri Sunshine Law.[32] The same month, the judge dismissed the majority of the claims against the State Auditor's Office, and ordered the Missouri Alliance for Freedom to re-plead its claims.[33] In January 2019, following a trial, Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem ruled against the Missouri Alliance for Freedom on all claims, ending the suit with a judgment in favor of Galloway.[28][34] The judge concluded that the State Auditor's Office had made "an enormous good-faith effort to comply with several very large public records requests" and found that the office's records custodian did not apparently realize (until it was too late) that the phones issued by the office to Galloway and to employees automatically deleted text messages after 30 days.[28] The Missouri Alliance for Freedom chose not to appeal.[28]

Galloway was appointed to the post of Missouri State Auditor by Governor Jay Nixon in 2015 following the death of Republican Auditor Tom Schweich. She won election to a full term as Missouri State Auditor on November 6, 2018. She opted not to run for reelection in 2022 and her term expired in January 2023, leaving the Democrats with no statewide elected offices in Missouri, when Republican Scott Fitzpatrick was sworn in as State Auditor.

Galloway's endorsements included former president Barack Obama,[43] former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden,[44] U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren,[45] New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy,[46] U.S. Representative from Missouri's 5th District Emanuel Cleaver,[47] Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas, former Georgia House of Representatives minority leader Stacey Abrams.[48] Three famous St. Louis natives also campaigned with her: model Karlie Kloss,[49] Bravo host Andy Cohen, and journalist Derek Blasberg.[50]

Her endorsements from national organizations or state chapters of national organizations included Sierra Club,[51] EMILY's List,[52] Planned Parenthood,[53] Missouri AFL-CIO,[54] End Citizens United,[55] Let America Vote,[55] the National Women's Political Caucus,[56] and the Missouri Women's Leadership Council.[57]

The Editorial Boards at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch,[58] Missouri's most circulated newspaper;[59] The Kansas City Star, Missouri's second most circulated newspaper;[60] and The St. Louis American, a newspaper that serves the St. Louis-area African-American community, all endorsed Galloway.[61]