By RUDI KELLER
Missouri Independent
Missouri Republicans ratified Gov. Mike Parson’s choice of successor Tuesday by nominating Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, rejecting the scion of a veteran political family and the disruptive tactics of the GOP’s most vocal faction.
Kehoe trailed Ashcroft in most polls until this summer, when the $16 million campaign warchest he amassed in his campaign fund and joint fundraising PAC enabled Kehoe to fill the airwaves, overwhelming opponents and surviving a late onslaught of outside spending.
On Tuesday, he bested his rivals with just under 40% of the vote.
“Fifteen months ago, people said we couldn’t win,” Kehoe told supporters gathered in Jefferson City Tuesday. “Our own polling showed us 35 points at an underdog… But we believed in our cause, and more importantly, you believe in us.”
The job now for Kehoe will be to bring his party together following his victory, especially bringing Eigel’s supporters into the fold. Kehoe endured attacks for his support of higher fuel taxes, votes to allow foreign ownership of farmland and used derisive nicknames like RINO (Republican in name only), “Tax Hike Mike” and “Kung Pao Kehoe.”
Those ads didn’t move Nick Schatzer of Ashland, who voted for Kehoe on Tuesday.
“Look at our roads,” he said. “They need work.”
Schatzer said Kehoe’s background won him over.
“I feel like government is essentially a business,” he said. “He’s run several businesses and been successful.”
While no candidate gained a significant advantage when the biggest voice in today’s Republican Party, former President Donald Trump, endorsed all three leading contenders, it did help deflect some of the criticism aimed at Kehoe.
Throughout the primary, Kehoe had his eye on the general election in a way his rivals did not.
“Missourians are a little bit sick of hate politics,” Kehoe said in a July interview with The Independent.
Ashcroft was the first to concede shortly after 9:30 p.m., asking Missourians to “join me in asking God to bless Mike Kehoe, as he’s the Republican nominee for governor.”
Eigel conceded soon after, congratulating Kehoe and wishing him “success as you take on the responsibilities of leading our state.”
“The issues we discussed during this campaign, they’re critical,” Eigel said. “They’re crucial to Missouri’s futures, and I hope that you will address them with the same vigor and commitment that we brought to this race.”
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.
The Independent’s Rebecca Rivas and Annelise Hanshaw contributed to this story.