Mike Kehoe, the Republican candidate for Missouri governor, thanks supporters as he steps onstage for his victory speech the night of the primary election in August (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
Missouri’s next governor will be Mike Kehoe, a Republican who cruised to victory Tuesday night over Democrat Crystal Quade.
The Associated Press called the race at 8:30 p.m. with 22% of precincts reporting and Kehoe leading Quade 52% to 46%
Kehoe has served six years as lieutenant governor after being appointed to the job by Gov. Mike Parson in 2018.
Kehoe’s biggest hurdle to becoming governor came during a contentious primary in August, when he beat out two fellow Republicans who boasted being more conservative on issues.
Leading up to the primary, Kehoe trailed Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in most polls until the summer, when the $16 million campaign war chest he amassed enabled him to fill the airwaves, overwhelming opponents and surviving a late onslaught of outside spending.
He won the primary with just under 40% of the vote.
Kehoe’s message was that he was a more interested in governing than politics.
“Missourians are a little bit sick of hate politics,” Kehoe said in a July interview with The Independent.
However, Quade, who has served as Democratic leader in the Missouri House, cautioned voters not to view Kehoe as less “extreme” than his primary rivals.
“While folks may say that one (Republican candidate) is more moderate than the other, the reality is Lt. Gov. Kehoe would sign the same pieces of legislation that the extremists in Jefferson City would send him regardless,” Quade told reporters, following the annual governor’s ham breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in August.
Kehoe is the youngest of six children raised by a single mother in St. Louis. His mom worked three jobs to support the family, he said, and when he was old enough he got a job washing cars at a local auto dealership.
When he had enough money, he bought a struggling company that built ambulances, doubling it in size over the next five years to what is now one of the largest ambulance manufacturers in the world.
At the age of 30, he bought a Ford dealership in Jefferson City, putting down roots in the community and building the business over the next two decades. He sold the dealership in 2011.
He was elected to the state Senate in 2012 and was the chamber’s majority leader when Parson appointed him lieutenant governor in 2018. Kehoe won a full term as lieutenant governor in 2020.
As governor, Kehoe has vowed to eliminate the state income tax and develop a crime plan that can be rolled out when the legislature reconvenes in January.