Mike Kehoe wins GOP primary in race for Missouri governor

Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) has won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, Decision Desk HQ projects, emerging from a crowded field of candidates vying to replace term-limited Gov. Mike Parson (R).

Kehoe, whom Parson appointed to the lieutenant governor role back in 2018, has the outgoing governor’s backing to replace him.

He also went into Tuesday’s contest with former President Trump’s support, though the Republican presidential nominee also endorsed Kehoe’s rivals: Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) and state Sen. Bill Eigel (R). 

“They are MAGA and America First all the way! I can’t hurt two of them by Endorsing one,” Trump said in a Truth Social post last month. “Choose any one of them – You can’t go wrong!” 

Kehoe also brought in endorsements from the Missouri Farm Bureau’s PAC and the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police and had raked in big fundraising figures with the help of American Dream PAC.

Across the aisle, businessman Mike Hamra and state House Minority Leader Crystal Quade were competing for the Democratic nomination, but the governor’s mansion in the conservative state is likely to stay in GOP hands this fall. The nonpartisan political handicapper Cook Political Report rates Missouri “solid Republican.”