Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe fought off a pack of Republican rivals to win his party’s nomination for governor last week.
Kehoe appeared to be an early favorite but faced a strong challenge from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and state Sen. Bill Eigel. They were atop a pack of nine candidates vying to be the sole Republican gubernatorial candidate to make it to the November ballot.
“I am so proud of the race we ran − but this campaign also exposed some deep divisions within our party. So let me say this: The future of Missouri is too important for the Republican Party to be reduced to finger-pointing and name-calling. We have to join together if we’re going to defeat our common foe,” Kehoe said in a speech after the election. “And make no mistake: our common foe is the bad policies pushed by Washington, DC—the dangerous progressive experiments that coddle criminals and make our streets more dangerous − the open border policies that flood our country with illegal immigrants and fentanyl − and the dependency on government that deflates people’s drive and threatens their futures.”