COLUMBIA, Missouri — Voters in Missouri are expected to nominate a Republican candidate for governor and other statewide positions, likely choosing the next leaders of a deeply conservative state that currently has no Democratic statewide representative.
GOP gubernatorial candidates include Secretary of State Jay AshcroftLt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Sen. Bill Eigel. Former President Donald Trump all supported it.
Republican Governor Mike Parson is unable to seek re-election due to term limits.
Below is a summary of the key Republican primaries in Missouri:
The GOP battle for governor appears to be between Ashcroft, who comes from a Missouri political dynasty, and Kehoe, a fundraising powerhouse who Parson backed as his successor.
Ashcroft has gained considerable notoriety as Secretary of State since 2017. Ashcroft’s father, John Ashcroft, was governor of Missouri, senator, and U.S. attorney general under former President George W. Bush.
As Secretary of State, Ashcroft Missouri withdrawn last year of a bipartisan, multistate effort aimed at ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls that found itself in the crosshairs of conspiracy theories fueled by Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election. Ashcroft has also long advocated for Missouri’s photo identification requirement for voters as a way to prevent voter fraud, though he has also maintained that Missouri already has secure elections.
He has also played a sometimes controversial role in ballot measures, recently trying to amendment on abortion rights that will appear on November ballots because it “allows dangerous and unregulated abortions up until birth.” Appeals court judges ruled that Ashcroft’s language politically biased and rewrote the summary of the voting proposal that will be presented to voters.
Kehoe and his supporters have poured money into his campaign and advertising to try to make up for Ashcroft’s lead in name recognition. About a week before Tuesday’s primary, his campaign reported that it had raised $4.2 million this election cycle, more than three times what Ashcroft had raised.
In addition, the pro-Kehoe political action committee American Dream PAC raised more than $7 million, more than double the nearly $3 million raised by Committee 4 Liberty, which supports Ashcroft.
Kehoe assumed the role of lieutenant governor in 2018. He was appointed to the position after a government reshuffle when former Governor Eric Greitens resigned that year in the face of possible impeachment. Mike Parsons was lieutenant governor, but rose to governor when Greitens left. Parson then appointed Kehoe to replace him as lieutenant governor. Kehoe was the state’s second-highest-ranking senator at the time.
Kehoe was first elected to the state Senate in 2010 after years as a car dealership owner. As caucus chairman, he oversaw legislation that limited unions and that Republicans said would help local businesses.
Eigel is the outsider in the Republican gubernatorial race. Although both his official campaign and the pro-Eigel PAC have outpaced Ashcroft, he still lags significantly behind Kehoe in fundraising. He also lacks the name recognition that Ashcroft and Kehoe have built as statewide elected officials. Eigel has only ever been elected to state senator to represent his suburban St. Louis district. His strategy seems to be to market himself as the most conservative candidate, at any given time using a flamethrower to set fire to a pile of boxes, which would later become a metaphor for the way he would attack the “woke liberal agenda.”
Current Attorney General Andrew Bailey is locked in a fierce battle with Trump attorney Will Scharf to become the Republican nominee for the job and, in all likelihood, retain his seat. This is the first chance for voters to have their say on Bailey, another Parson appointee who was appointed to the job after Eric Schmitt stepped down to run for U.S. senator in 2022.
Major money groups with connections to major Republican campaign financier Leonard Leo are backing Scharf. Both candidates espouse conservative positions, but Bailey has navigated Missouri’s political system while much of Scharf’s career has been in Washington.
The political ambitions of Secretary of State Ashcroft and Lieutenant Governor Kehoe keep their seats open and attract huge numbers of Republican candidates.
GOP candidates for secretary of state include Senators Mary Elizabeth Coleman and Denny Hoskins, state Representatives House Speakers Dean Plocher and Adam Schwadron, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller, and political newcomers Jamie Corley and Valentina Gomez. The depth of the primary field means that a winner could emerge with a small share of the vote.
The GOP primary for lieutenant governor is less crowded, with state Sens. Lincoln Hough and Holly Thompson Rehder, as well as Dave Wasinger, a certified public accountant and attorney with the Wasinger Daming law firm in St. Louis, running.
