Even though he has been a Montgomery County resident for just six years, Andrew Bailey loves his home.

“It’s good to be home here in Montgomery County,” the Missouri Attorney General and Rhineland resident said. “I’m a proud Montgomery County resident. I tell folks all of the time, ‘I wasn’t born here, but I got here as fast as I could.’”

Bailey shared his experiences of his first two years as attorney general at the Lincoln Day Banquet on June 6 at the Knights of Columbus building in Montgomery City. More than 90 people were in attendance at the event, which was sponsored by the Montgomery County Republican Committee. A dinner was served before Bailey’s speech.

State Representatives Bruce Sassmann and Jeff Myers also made speeches at the Lincoln Day Banquet. Sassmann serves the 61st District, which represents Osage and Gasconade counties and parts of Miller and Montgomery counties. Myers serves the 42nd District, which represents Warren and Montgomery counties.

Bailey was the keynote speaker of the banquet. During his 30-minute speech, he talked about his legal career and his road to becoming the first Montgomery Countian to take over attorney general duties.

“All I wanted to do in life was to be a prosecuting attorney,” Bailey said. “My grandfather had worked in law enforcement. He was a sheriff’s deputy. When I was a little kid, he used to take me to the courthouse with him to watch him testify. So as a six-year old, when you’re watching your grandpa take the stand to lock bad guys up, you’re thinking, ‘That’s got to be the coolest job on earth.’”

Bailey was appointed attorney general by then-Missouri Governor Mike Parson in November 2022 to replace Eric Schmitt, who was voted the state’s new U.S. Senator. Bailey said one of the biggest highlights during his 28-month tenure in office is putting seven attorneys on various levels of the federal and state bench.

“I can’t thank Gov. Parson, Gov. Kehoe and President Trump enough for the work they did to reshape the judiciary,” Bailey said.

A Columbia native, Bailey went to the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1999 on an Army scholarship. He went to Iraq twice before deciding to go to law school. In law school, Bailey had U.S. Senator Josh Hawley as one of his professors.

Bailey later moved to St. Louis, working as an armed guard at a courthouse. While in law school, Bailey worked as an intern at the prosecutor’s office in Montgomery County.

Bailey said New Florence resident Lacy Fischer, who works at the Montgomery County Courthouse, gave him some valuable tips in working as a prosecutor.

“I learned more from Lacy than I did in the three years of law school,” Bailey said. “So I’m grateful to her and the entire team at the prosecutor’s office.”

Bailey served as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Warren County following law school. He said it was the best job he ever had.

“I get to try cases and work with law enforcement every day and fight to find justice for victims,” Bailey said. “That was really important to me. I felt like I was filling my grandfather’s legacy.”

Bailey talked about his experiences of working as an attorney for the Warren County Juvenile office, which motivated him and his wife to adopt children.

“I remember standing in court and there were kids who were begging the judge to terminate their criminal rights and they didn’t have a home to go to for Christmas,” Bailey said. “That just about killed me. I didn’t know there were kids in Missouri who didn’t have homes for Christmas. How can that be? So, my wife and I became foster parents.”

Bailey joined the Missouri Governor’s office in 2019. That same year, Bailey and his family moved to Montgomery County after finding some property north of Rhineland. The attorney general said living in Montgomery County has been his dream since law school.

“I didn’t wake up one day and said I want to be a politician,” Bailey said. “I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and I care. I care because this is home. I care because my friends and neighbors live here. That’s the reason I showed up here. I was chosen, not by accidental birth, because I was chosen to raise my family here and because I love this place.”