JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Republican Gov. Mike Parson has named state Treasurer Eric Schmitt to replace Senator-elect Josh Hawley as Missouri’s attorney general. Parson appointed the 43-year-old Republican on Tuesday.

The attorney general’s seat will be open once Hawley joins the U.S. Senate in January. Hawley unseated Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in last week’s election.

Voters elected Schmitt as treasurer by wide margins in 2016. He previously served as a state senator representing suburban St. Louis.
Schmitt’s appointment will leave another vacancy in a statewide seat for Parson to fill. That will mean half of Missouri’s statewide officeholders were appointed and not elected to their seats.

Parson named Mike Kehoe lieutenant governor after Parson left that role to assume the governorship when former Gov. Eric Greitens resigned .