Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe secures GOP nomination for governor race

Missouri’s sitting Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) has secured the Republican nomination in the Midwest state’s tossup gubernatorial election.

AP News called the race at 10:10 p.m. CDT. As of Wednesday afternoon, Kehoe collected over 39% of the vote over his opponents state Sen. Bill Eigel (R-Weldon Spring) and Sec. of State Jay Ashcroft (R), who amassed 33% and 23% of the overall vote respectively. Also in the race was Darrell Leon McClanahan III, an honorary member of the Ku Klux Klan who was allowed to stay on the ballot after a ruling from a Cole County judge in May. McClanahan gathered less than 1% of the vote.

Kehoe was the most moderate candidate in the race, and he accurately predicted that Missouri voters were “sick of the hate politics” in an interview held at his campaign headquarters days before the election.

“I don’t scream and holler about politics,” Kehoe told The Independent. “I’m running against people who are of the ‘burn it down’ variety. I’m just not a burn it down guy.”

Last September, Eigel went viral on social media after he posted a video of him and fellow state Sen. Nick Schroer (R-Lake St. Louis) using flamethrowers to literally burn a pile of books. In a statement to the Kansas City Star after the event, Eigel said that he would burn more “woke pornographic books” on the lawn of the governor’s mansion.

Ashcroft has served as Missouri’s Secretary of State since 2017, a position his father John held from 1976-1985. During a debate between Ashcroft and Eigel on July 26, both men described themselves as Christian nationalists before Ashcroft inaccurately said that the United States was “founded as a Christian nation.”

After being given a clear definition of the term, Missouri GOP gubernatorial candidates Bill Eigel and Jay Ashcroft describe themselves as Christian nationalists.

ASHCROFT: “We were founded as a Christian nation, and we want to keep those guiding principles.” pic.twitter.com/7GrUm0DCi7

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) July 29, 2024

Kehoe has served as Missouri’s lieutenant governor since 2018, when current Gov. Mike Parson (R) appointed him to the position. Fundraising numbers released in July showed that Kehoe raised nearly $13 million over the past two years, more than both of his opponents combined. Despite his commanding financial lead, Kehoe’s victory was not a sure thing after polling suggested a tight race between him and Ashcroft. The race became more complicated when former President Donald Trump decided to endorse all three candidates in the race on July 27.

Kehoe is slated to face Democratic state Rep. Crystal Quayde in the November general election. The Cook Political Report rates the race as solid Republican.