Springfield Democrat and Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade announced her 2024 gubernatorial bid on July 9, after months of speculation.
Quade, who won her fourth and final term in the House in 2022, is the first major Democrat to enter the race in a state where Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers, and every statewide office. Current Republican Gov. Mike Parson is term-limited and at least three Republicans are seeking to replace him for a four-year term as Missouri's chief executive.
In a video announcing her campaign, Quade, 37, reflects on her childhood and path to the Missouri House, for which she was first elected in 2016 to represent District 132, which encompasses much of northwest Springfield and parts of downtown.
In the campaign video, Quade touts her legislative résumé, referencing her efforts to help restore abortion rights, stop Russian and Chinese entities from buying up Missouri farmland, and says that she’s “stood up for workers against big corporate special interests.”
“Missourians care about their freedoms, and extremist Republicans won’t stop stripping away the rights of Missourians,” a press release announcing her campaign reads. “Be it abortion, the yearly attacks on the initiative petition process, overruling Missouri voters on Medicaid expansion, the extremist Republicans have been steering Missouri off a cliff.”
The state Senate seat that Quade would be eligible to run in, a common next step for state representatives, is currently held by Republican Sen. Lincoln Hough, and won’t be open until 2026, when he is term limited.
The last Democratic statewide office holder in Missouri, Nicole Galloway, lost to Gov. Mike Parson in her campaign for the state’s top executive in 2020 by over 16 percentage points.
In her video, Quade makes multiple references to Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, one of three Republican candidates also vying for governor. Ashcroft is thus far challenged by Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and State Sen. Bill Eigel.
“I’m not worried about bullies like Jay Ashcroft,” Quade says in the video. “Because Missouri has never seen a governor like me before. Ashcroft uses fear to score cheap political points and divide us.”
Quade’s most recent campaign finance report, filed on April 17, shows her campaign committee with over $68,000 on hand. A political action committee dubbed the Crystal PAC has over $33,000, as of April 1.
If elected, Quade would be the state’s first female governor. “Missouri doesn’t need more of the same,” she says in a tweet announcing her campaign.
Her campaign was heavily speculated when she said in April she was “absolutely” considering running for governor, after Ashcroft declared his candidacy.
Quade will launch officially her campaign on Monday, July 10 at Big Momma’s coffee shop in Springfield.
She is a graduate of Missouri State University with a degree in social work and the former director of Springfield-based nonprofit Care to Learn.
