Missouri
Showdowns for the GOP nominations for Missouri governor and attorney general begin
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters are set to nominate a Republican candidate for governor and other statewide offices, likely deciding the next leaders of a strongly conservative state currently without any Democratic statewide officials.
GOP gubernatorial candidates include Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and state Sen. Bill Eigel. Former President Donald Trump endorsed all three.
Republican Gov. Mike Parson is barred from seeking reelection by term limits.
Here’s a breakdown of Missouri’s top statewide Republican primaries:
Governor
The GOP fight for the governorship appears to be between Ashcroft, who comes from a Missouri political dynasty, and Kehoe, a powerhouse in fundraising who was endorsed by Parson to be his successor.
Ashcroft has considerable name recognition after serving as secretary of state since 2017. Ashcroft’s father, John Ashcroft, served as Missouri governor, a U.S. senator and U.S. attorney general under former President George W. Bush.
As secretary of state, Ashcroft withdrew Missouri last year from a bipartisan, multistate effort aimed at ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls that has found itself in the crosshairs of conspiracy theories fueled by Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election. Ashcroft has also long advocated for Missouri’s photo identification requirement for voters as a way to prevent voter fraud, although he has also maintained Missouri already had secure elections.
He’s also played a sometimes contentious role in ballot measures. Most recently, he sought to describe an abortion rights amendment that will be on November’s ballot as allowing “dangerous and unregulated abortions until live birth.” Appeals court judges ruled Ashcroft’s language was politically partisan and rewrote the summary of the ballot measure that will appear before voters.
Kehoe and his supporters have been pouring money into his campaign and advertisements to make up for Ashcroft’s lead in name recognition. Roughly a week before Tuesday’s primary, his campaign reported raising $4.2 million over the election cycle, more than three times what Ashcroft raised.
Pro-Kehoe political action committee American Dream PAC also brought in more than $7 million, more than double the close to $3 million raised by Committee 4 Liberty, which backs Ashcroft.
Kehoe assumed the lieutenant governor’s seat in 2018. He was appointed to the position following a government reshuffling when former Gov. Eric Greitens resigned in the face of potential impeachment that year. Mike Parson was serving as lieutenant governor but ascended to the governor’s office when Greitens left. Parson then tapped Kehoe to replace him as lieutenant governor. Kehoe had been serving as the second-highest ranking state senator at the time.
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Kehoe was first elected to the state Senate in 2010 after years as a car dealership owner. As majority floor leader, he oversaw legislation that restricted unions and that Republicans said would help local businesses.
Eigel is the dark horse of the Republican gubernatorial primary. Although both his official campaign and the pro-Eigel PAC outraised Ashcroft, he’s still significantly behind Kehoe in fundraising. He also lacks the name identification both Ashcroft and Kehoe built as statewide elected officials. Eigel has only ever won election to the state Senate to represent his suburban St. Louis district. His strategy appears to be marketing himself as the most conservative candidate, at one point using a flamethrower to light a pile of boxes on fire that he later was a metaphor for how he would attack the “woke liberal agenda.”
Attorney general and other statewide seats
Current Attorney General Andrew Bailey is in a fierce fight with Trump lawyer Will Scharf to be the Republican nominee for the position and, presumably, retain his seat. This will be voters’ first chance to weigh in on Bailey, another Parson appointee named to the position after Eric Schmitt resigned to become a U.S. senator in 2022.
Big money groups with connections to key Republican campaign financier Leonard Leo are backing Scharf. Both candidates take conservative positions, but Bailey has gone through the Missouri political system while much of Scharf’s career has been in Washington.
Secretary of State Ashcroft’s and Lt. Gov. Kehoe’s political ambitions leave their seats open and have drawn super-sized fields of Republican hopefuls.
GOP secretary of state candidates include: state Sens. Mary Elizabeth Coleman and Denny Hoskins, state Reps. House Speaker Dean Plocher and Adam Schwadron, Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller, and political newcomers Jamie Corley and Valentina Gomez. The depth of the primary field means a winner could emerge with a small fraction of the vote.
The lieutenant governor’s GOP primary is less crowded, with state Sens. Lincoln Hough and Holly Thompson Rehder, as well as Dave Wasinger, a certified public accountant and attorney at St. Louis law firm Wasinger Daming.
Missouri men’s basketball just keeps rolling.
The Tigers strung together their fifth straight win, this time defeating Arkansas Pine Bluff in a 112-64 blowout at home Sunday afternoon. The second half struggles that have typically come to bite them didn’t appear, instead pushing the same offensive pace until the very end of the contest.
Junior Mark Mitchell was the star of the show for Missouri. The forward scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, paired with five rebounds and a block. Although not a threat on the perimeter, his offensive prowess inside the paint gives the Tigers a consistent option.
Graduate senior Caleb Grill continued his dominance from behind the arc, dropping 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Senior Tamar Bates also added 13 points of his own on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.
Perhaps the most impressive performance of the night, however, came from sophomore Anthony Robinson II. The guard was everywhere on both sides of the ball, recording a double-double of 11 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and a block on 3-of-7 shooting from the field.
It was the first double-double of Robinson’s young career at Missouri.
The Tigers did struggle to shoot the 3-pointer compared to previous games, finishing with just a 9-of-32 clip. That was negated by their 54 points in the paint, as well as their ability to prevent the Golden Lions from having success in their own right.
Arkansas Pine Bluff shot 9-of-28 from three — a more efficient night of shooting, but on less attempts compared to Missouri. It also turned the ball over 19 times, allowing the Tigers 33 easy points off them.
Missouri also had an uncharacteristically good game under the basket, grabbing 19 offensive rebounds that resulted in 24 second-chance points. Five of those rebounds came from Robinson.
Before Thanksgiving arrives, the Tigers will go up against Lindenwood at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Mizzou Arena.
|
Arkansas Pine Bluff |
|
|---|---|
|
Christian Moore |
Anthony Robinson II |
|
Zach Reinhart |
Tamar Bates |
|
Caleb Jones |
Annor Boateng |
|
Klemen Vuga |
Mark Mitchell |
|
Quentin Bolton Jr. |
Josh Gray |
Who: Missouri Tigers (4-1, 0-0 SEC) vs. Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions (1-5, 0-0 SWA)
What: Missouri’s sixth game of the 2024-’25 season
Where: Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.
When: Sunday, November 24, 4:00 p.m.
TV: ESPN+, SECN+
Radio: Tiger Radio Network
Series: Missouri leads 3-0
Last Meeting: Nov. 6, 2023: Missouri opened the season with a 101-79 win over Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Five different players scored over 15 points for Missouri, including Sean East II, Nick Honor, Noah Carter, Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates.
Last Time Out, Missouri: The Tigers handled business in a 91-56 win over Pacific. Guard Caleb Grill continued a hot streak, leading the team with 25 points, including 21 from three-point makes. Grill also notched a career-high with five steals.
Last Time Out, Arkansas Pine-Bluff:The Golden Lions fell on the road to Texas Tech, losing 98-64. Arkansas Pine-Bluff shot 52.1% from the field while Texas Tech shot 59.7%. The Golden Lions were led by guard Christian Moore with 20 points.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Mark Gronowski threw for 258 yards and two touchdowns and Amar Johnson ran for two touchdowns and South Dakota State overwhelmed Missouri State 45-9 on Saturday and claimed a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference regular-season title.
With the win and North Dakota State’s loss to South Dakota, the Bison, Coyotes and Jackrabbits (10-2, 7-1) all secure a three-way tie for the Missouri Valley Football Conference regular-season title.
Missouri State (8-4, 6-2) entered averaging 37 points per game.
It was Missouri State’s final game as a Missouri Valley Football Conference member before joining Conference USA and the FBS ranks in 2025. Missouri State kicks off next season on Aug. 30 when it travels to Southern Cal.
___
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