The Campaign Digest is a weekly roundup of news related to the Aug. 6 statewide primary races in Missouri.
ANALYSIS
Mike Kehoe has a message for you and he acknowledges it goes against the grain of today's politics that he says is more focused on anger than on getting things done.
“I personally think that Missourians, and voters in general, are a little sick of the bomb-throwing and the name-calling and the personal attacks,” Kehoe said July 10 in an interview with the Hauxeda.
“I tell people all the time, if you want a flame-thrower, or somebody who throws hand grenades, or screams and hollers at you, I'm probably not your guy.
“But if you want somebody who, you know, understands what relationships are about, understands how to get through tough situations and come out with a good conservative outcome, I think I'm the guy that has the best background to do that.”
Kehoe, who has been lieutenant governor of Missouri since 2018, is one of nine candidates on the GOP ballot (along with five on the Democratic primary ballot) hoping to succeed Gov. Mike Parson, who is term-limited.
The primary election is Aug. 6, and the GOP nominee will be the heavy favorite going into the general election Nov. 5. Kehoe's top competitors in the Republican primary are Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, whose father John was governor from 1985 to 1993, and state Sen. Bill Eigel, a Republican from St. Charles County. Polls suggest a tight race, but with many voters undecided.
While new campaign finance reports are due July 15, Kehoe has been the leading fundraiser and announced July 12 that he had raised more than $4.5 million in the second fundraising quarter of 2024. That leaves a combined total cash-on-hand of $6.2 million for both fundraising committees supporting Kehoe’s campaign, Citizens to Elect Mike Kehoe and American Dream PAC, according to a news release.
Kehoe has classic GOP self-made man story
Kehoe has the kind of “pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps” biography that is classic for a Republican candidate.
He's the youngest of six children. His father left when Kehoe was 1-year-old. His mom worked three jobs to support the family and when he was old enough, Kehoe got a job washing cars for the Dave Sinclair car dealership in St. Louis, eventually becoming the New Truck Sales Manager at the age of 23.
A couple of years later, he ended up buying a struggling company, Osage Industries, a van conversion and ambulance manufacturing company in Linn, Missouri. Over a five-year period, the company doubled in size and is now one of the largest ambulance manufacturers in the world.
Kehoe next bought a Ford dealership in Jefferson City, building that business and becoming deeply engaged in the community.
He got his start in politics when GOP Gov. Matt Blunt appointed him to the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission. He was elected to the state Senate in 2010 and later became Majority Leader. When Mike Parson replaced Eric Greitens as governor in 2018, Parson appointed Kehoe as lieutenant governor — and both were re-elected to full terms in 2020.
“I tell people all the time, just because you have very basic beginnings, that doesn't always make you government material or leadership material,” Kehoe said during an interview in the lobby of the Hotel Vandivort in Downtown Springfield. “It's kind of what happens after that, and what you do with that life to try to advance yourself.”
Phasing out personal income tax is key goal
Kehoe understands voter interest in issues such as illegal immigration and foreign ownership of agricultural land. He has policy ideas for both.
But he is focusing on traditional Republican priorities, such as eliminating the state's personal income tax, much like nine other states have done.
Kehoe is proud of a record that he said includes supporting more than $2.4 billion in tax cuts, but he wants to do more. “Our policy for economic development includes eliminating the state personal income tax. Since I've been in office, we have cut personal income tax from 6% to 4.7%. We believe there's a way and it's not a magic wand, a light switch that happens overnight, because you still have to fund essential services. But we believe there's a way through kind of the old theory of Reaganomics, of increasing our state's economy, and eventually ramping out our state's personal income tax.
“I think that would be the most beneficial tax policy for Missourians because it puts real money back into their pocket, and they can spend money better than any elected official candidate.”
Kehoe said as he travels the state, it does not take long for voters to bring up the issue of illegal immigration — but he says it is foolish to think (as his competitor Eigel urges) that the state could round up an estimated 77,000 people in Missouri who are without proper documentation.
“It's sensationalism, but it's not practical,” Kehoe said. “I believe anybody who's in governance would want to try to stop illegal immigrants from coming in and then contain the ones that are really causing our citizens harm and figure out a way to get them back to the country that they came from. But this notion that we're just going to round them up and put them in some kind of encampments and take them out, I think that's a little bit sensationalized.”
Kehoe said the emphasis should be on stopping the increase in drugs, especially fentanyl, coming across the border with migrants. “Fentanyl is now the No. 1 cause of death for Missourians between 18 and 42, and so I think that is a real situation that Missourians are very much concerned about, they want to know how we're going to stop it or slow it down.”
As for land sales to Chinese companies or other foreign investors, Kehoe acknowledges he was among the vast majority of legislators who supported changes in 2013 that cleared the way for agricultural land sales to a Chinese company. He notes that Parson, as well as current U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, were also in the Senate majority at that time.
But Kehoe notes that move was aimed at protecting an Ottaway County business that employed 350 people, a loss that would have been devastating in a rural county. It was “different times, and our relationship with China was different,” Kehoe said. In that era, building relationships and agricultural exports to China was a top priority for the No. 1 sector of Missouri's economy. The U.S. relationship to China has turned “180 degrees and they've become more of a threat than ever,” Kehoe said.
“I am against selling land to any foreign enemy of our country period,” Kehoe said.
Can government work?
Kehoe said he thinks “voters are looking for somebody who is a commonsense conservative.” And that means working with people to his right on the Republican side, and also with Democrats.
“Our country was founded by people who figured out a way to work together. I tell people all the time, 56 gentlemen got into a hall in Philadelphia 248 years ago, and I'm relatively sure when they signed that document, not everyone got exactly what they walked in that building wanting. And so we've been built as a nation to try to figure out a solution to move forward.”
Kehoe continued: “So this notion that you just have to become an enemy, because you're a different party than I am, is somewhat ridiculous ... That's not who Missouri is. That's not how our country was founded. And I think you need a governor who understands that governing is very hard.
“Screaming and social media and all the things that happen out there — that's easy, anybody can do that. But actually putting a plan together to move Missouri forward and bringing people together to enact that plan, and making sure it's a conservative solution. In my case, that's what's called governing. And that's a lot harder than screaming.”
Other news in the race for governor
Kehoe is no-show in St. Louis debate
Republican candidates trade barbs in Missouri gubernatorial primary debate: Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and state Sen. Bill Eigel exchanged sharp attacks on each other and absent opponent Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe at one of the rare debates in the GOP gubernatorial primary July 12.
Read the full story from the Missouri Independent (free access).
KC Star: Missouri candidate for governor says he’s an engineer. Why doesn’t he have a license?
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft came under attack for describing himself as an engineer in his campaign for governor despite holding no professional license.
Ashcroft, a Republican, has largely centered his campaign on his engineering background in ads and on his website. In a video launching his campaign, Ashcroft said “I’m an engineer and engineers fix problems.”
A complaint filed with the Missouri Division of Professional Registration accuses Ashcroft of “fraud and dishonesty.” It alleges that Ashcroft is not licensed as an engineer and “therefore is violating the law by holding himself out as one” as well as “committing fraud and dishonesty against the profession and the public.”
Ashcroft spokesperson Jason Cabel Roe on July 8 defended Ashcroft’s professional background but confirmed that the secretary of state has never been licensed as a professional engineer.
Read the full Kansas City Star story here (subscription required).
Latest TV ads
The Jay Ashcroft for Governor campaign produced this ad, criticizing his opponent, Mike Kehoe, and touting his own record as secretary of state:
Meanwhile, Kehoe was out with his own new ad focusing on his roots and his commitment to fighting crime:
And the Eigel campaign, as well as a PAC supporting him, have new ads. This is one from the campaign focusing on his promise to round up illegal immigrants in Missouri.
Missouri Independent: Democratic rivals for Missouri governor see abortion rights as path to victory over GOP
When Crystal Quade and Mike Hamra traveled to the Democratic Governors Association Conference in Minneapolis last month, they came with their stump speeches ready.
Yet before they could push their own platforms as gubernatorial candidates, they had to convince people that a Democrat from Missouri was worth paying attention to.
“Folks are excited about Missouri being back on the map,” said Quade, a Springfield Democrat and state House minority leader, about the conference attendees. “As we all know, we used to be considered quite a swing state, but in the last couple cycles, Missouri has definitely gone more to the right in the election results.”
Read the full preview from the Missouri Independent (free access).
Click here to follow all of the Daily Citizen's coverage of the governor's race, including Jack McGee's upcoming overview of the Democratic primary race, and his on-the-campaign-trail stories about Springfield candidates Crystal Quade and Mike Hamra.
Lieutenant Governor
The Daily Citizen's Jack McGee provided readers with an overview story last week on the statewide GOP race for lieutenant governor, a race that features Springfield state Sen. Lincoln Hough. McGee will be writing soon about a day on the campaign trail with Hough as he seeks to gain voter attention outside of southwest Missouri.
Missouri Independent: Crowded GOP primary field vying to be Missouri’s next lieutenant governor
When Eric Greitens was forced to resign from the Missouri governor’s office in 2018, he was replaced by Lt. Gov. Mike Parson.
Two years later, Parson won a full term of his own.
Being next in line for governor is the major constitutional requirement for the lieutenant governor. In Missouri, unlike many other states, the lieutenant governor doesn’t run on a ticket with the governor.
Five Republicans hope to win their party’s nomination for lieutenant governor on Aug. 6, vying for a job that involves sitting on various boards and breaking ties in the Missouri Senate.
Despite its limited constitutional authority, millions are being spent to capture the GOP nod heading into the fall, where the winner will take on one of two Democrats — state Rep. Richard Brown of Kansas City or Anastasia Syes of St. Louis — and Libertarian Ken Iverson of Lake St. Louis.
Read the full preview from the Missouri Independent (free access).
Attorney General
Current Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey suffered a setback in his efforts to deter transgender treatments for young people. The Missouri Independent reported that a court ruled the state has no right to access unredacted private health information of children treated at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Read the full story here (free access).
From St. Louis Public Radio (free access): Bailey cites experience in and out of office in race for Missouri attorney general — Before he became Missouri's attorney general, Andrew Bailey served in a number of roles — including combat veteran, security guard, prosecutor and general counsel to Gov. Mike Parson. Now, as he faces a tough Republican primary battle with St. Louis County attorney Will Scharf, Bailey is hoping that voters see his collective experience inside and outside of politics as compelling.
Secretary of State
From St. Louis Public Radio (free access): Jamie Corley believes not being a lawmaker helps her Missouri secretary of state candidacy: “If I was a part of the last two years of nonsense in the Missouri legislature, I would be embarrassed to ask someone for a promotion, especially Missouri voters,” Corley said.
U.S. Senate
KC Star: Missouri’s Josh Hawley embraced Christian nationalism in speech. What does that mean?
Sen. Josh Hawley began his speech Monday night (July 8) at the National Conservatism Conference with Augustine of Hippo. As the Roman Empire was crumbling, Hawley said, the Christian philosopher was writing about a City of God – a civilization built on the love of the Bible, family and labor.
The Puritans, Hawley said, brought that vision to the United States and made the nation in Augustine’s vision. “I’m sure some will say now that I’m calling America a Christian nation. So I am,” Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said. “Some will say that I’m advocating Christian nationalism. So I do. My question is: Is there any other kind worth having?”
Hawley’s open embrace of Christian nationalism – the idea that American politics and culture are, and should be, rooted in the Christian faith – marked a significant change. While the Missouri Senator’s work has often centered his faith – from writing his college thesis about President Theodore Roosevelt’s faith to working on Supreme Court cases protecting religious freedoms – he has chafed at being called a Christian nationalist.
Read the full Kansas City Star story here (subscription required).
