COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters are expected to nominate a Republican candidate for governor and other statewide offices, likely deciding the next leaders of a staunchly conservative state currently without any Democratic state officials.
Republican Party gubernatorial candidates include Secretary of State Jay AshcroftLieutenant Governor. Mike Kehoe and State Senator Bill Eigel. Former President Donald Trump endorsed all three.
Republican Governor Mike Parson is prevented from seeking re-election by term limits.
Here is a summary of the key Republican primaries across the state of Missouri:
Governor
The GOP fight for governor appears to be between Ashcroft, who comes from a Missouri political dynasty, and Kehoe, a fundraising powerhouse who has been endorsed by Parson to be his successor.
Ashcroft has a considerable name after serving as Secretary of State since 2017. Ashcroft’s father, John Ashcroftserved as Governor of Missouri, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Attorney General under former President George W. Bush.
As Secretary of State, Ashcroft withdrew from Missouri last year, a bipartisan, multistate effort aimed at ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls found itself in the crosshairs of conspiracy theories fueled by Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election. Ashcroft has also long been an advocate of photo ID requirement for voters as a way to prevent voter fraud, although he also stated that Missouri once had secure elections.
He also played a sometimes controversial role in ballot measures. More recently, he sought to describe a changing abortion rights which will be on the November ballot as allowing “dangerous and unregulated abortions up to live births.” The appeals court judges ruled that Ashcroft’s language was politically partisan and rewrote the ballot measure summary that will appear before voters.
Kehoe and his supporters have been pouring money into his campaign and advertising to offset Ashcroft’s lead in name recognition. About a week before Tuesday’s primary, his campaign reported raising $4.2 million during the election cycle, more than three times what Ashcroft raised.
The pro-Kehoe political action committee, American Dream PAC, also raised more than $7 million, more than double the nearly $3 million raised by Committee 4 Freedom, which supports Ashcroft.
Kehoe assumed the position of lieutenant governor in 2018. He was appointed to the position following a government reshuffle when former governor Eric Greitens resigned in the face of potential impeachment that year. Mike Parson was serving as lieutenant governor but ascended to the governor’s position when the Greitens left. Parson then chose Kehoe to replace him as lieutenant governor. Kehoe was serving as the second-highest ranked state senator at the time.
Kehoe was first elected to the state Senate in 2010 after years of owning a car dealership. As majority leader, he oversaw legislation that restricted unions and that Republicans said would help local businesses.
Eigel is the underdog in the Republican primary for governor. Although both his official campaign and pro-Eigel PAC have outperformed Ashcroft, he is still significantly behind Kehoe in fundraising. He also lacks the identifying name that Ashcroft and Kehoe have built as statewide elected officials. Eigel only won election to the State Senate to represent his suburban St. Louis district. His strategy appears to be to promote himself as the more conservative candidate at one point. using a flamethrower to set fire to a pile of boxes that he later became a metaphor for how he would attack the “woke liberal agenda.”
Attorney General and other statewide positions
Current Attorney General Andrew Bailey is in a tight fight with Trump lawyer Will Scharf to be the Republican nominee for the position and, presumably, keep his seat. This will be voters’ first chance to weigh in on Bailey, another Parson appointee named to the position after Eric Schmitt resigned to become a U.S. senator in 2022.
Large groups of money with connections to the Republican campaign’s top financier, Leonard Leo, are supporting Scharf. Both candidates take conservative positions, but Bailey came through the Missouri political system while much of Scharf’s career took place in Washington.
The political ambitions of Secretary of State Ashcroft and Lt. Governor Kehoe left their seats open and attracted gigantic fields of Republican candidates.
Republican Secretary of State candidates include: State Senators Mary Elizabeth Coleman and Denny Hoskins, State Representatives, House Speaker Dean Plocher and Adam Schwadron, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller, and recent political close friends Jamie Corley and Valentina Gomez. The depth of the primary field means a winner could emerge with a small fraction of the vote.
The Republican lieutenant governor’s primary is less crowded, with state senators Lincoln Hough and Holly Thompson Rehder, as well as Dave Wasinger, a certified public accountant and attorney with the St. Louis law firm Wasinger Daming, in the lead.
