CUBA, Mo. — Mike Kehoe wanted to make one thing perfectly clear to the several dozen supporters of his campaign for governor who gathered earlier this month at Cowtown USA. 

“I don’t scream and holler about politics,” said Kehoe, Missouri’s lieutenant governor. “I’m running against people who are of the ‘burn it down’ variety. I’m just not a burn it down guy.”

The winner of the Aug. 6 primary will be a heavy favorite heading into the fall in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2018. And most recent public polls of the race have Kehoe at or near the top, thanks in part to a massive campaign war chest he’s managed to build to flood the airwaves with his message — and attacks on his two main rivals for the nomination, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and state Sen. Bill Eigel. 

Kehoe knows his style is a bit of an anachronism in modern politics, especially in a race where his opponents have pilloried him with derisive nicknames like RINO (Republican in name only), “Tax Hike Mike” and “Kung Pao Kehoe.”

But he doesn’t think that kind of campaign will work in Missouri. 

“Missourians are a little bit sick of hate politics,” Keho said in an interview at his campaign headquarters with The Independent. 

“The good Lord, if He gave me anything, it was that I work very well with people even when they don’t agree with me,” he said. “Now, we still might not agree at the end of our conversation, but that doesn’t make them the enemy. When I look at the field, I don’t see a lot of other people who will govern that way.”

To his supporters, that’s exactly what Missouri needs. 

“He’s a conservative who will fight for his values,” said Charlie Kruse, who served as director of agriculture under former Gov. John Ashcroft – father of Jay Ashcroft – as well as president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. “And he can get things done. I have watched Mike Kehoe in action. He’s willing to talk to anybody. He’s willing to try to reason with anybody.”

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.

“I was born and raised dirt poor, though my mom said so we couldn’t afford dirt,” Kehoe said. “Growing up poor doesn’t necessarily give you the qualities to be a good governor. Building up and running a business doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a good governor. But it gives you a perspective. I have a different way of looking at things.”

His first foray into politics came when former Gov. Matt Blunt appointed him to the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, which led to him running successfully for the state Senate in 2010. He eventually rose to become Senate majority leader, and when Mike Parson took over as governor following Eric Greitens’ 2018 resignation, he appointed Kehoe to serve as lieutenant governor. 

Kehoe won a full term as lieutenant governor in 2020. 

In the run up to the Aug. 6 primary, The Independent asked Kehoe a series of questions with one theme – what would Missouri be like if he becomes governor? Here’s what he said:

Crime prevention

If Kehoe is sworn in as Missouri’s next governor, his focus will be on crime. 

“When my hand comes off the Bible,” Kehoe said, “the first thing we’re going to do is activate a day one crime plan.”

No other priority matters, he said, “unless we get crime under control.”

Overall crime trends in St. Louis are the lowest they’ve been in a decade, according to a 2023 crime report released by the mayor’s office earlier this year. But those encouraging numbers come after years of the city having one of the highest homicide rates in the country. 

Kansas City recorded its deadliest year on record in 2023, with 185 homicides, according to data maintained by The Kansas City Star. Statewide, Missouri State Highway Patrol statistics show that both violent crimes and property crimes declined in 2023 compared to 2022. 

Law enforcement agencies at every level — local police, sheriff’s offices and the highway patrol — are struggling to hire and retain people, Kehoe said. The state can play a role in turning that around, including directly appropriating money to improve pay. 

“Law enforcement people are woefully underpaid based on the risk they take for our community,” he said. “I want to make Missouri the friendliest law enforcement state in the union.”

Other details of his crime plan are more fluid, but Kehoe said he will bring together local leaders and law enforcement groups to come up with a game plan to tackle violent crime in Missouri.

“None of the other stuff matters unless you have safe communities,” he said. “Businesses aren’t going to expand here or move here if they see us on the front page in the New York Times every week. Folks aren’t going to want to stay living here if they don’t feel safe.”

Part of Kehoe’s message on crime involves border security, namely the idea that Chinese fentanyl is coming into the country through Mexico and ravaging Missouri communities. 

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported over 2,000 drug-related overdose deaths occurred in the state in 2021, and around 70% were caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Drug overdose is the leading cause of death among adults aged 18-44 in Missouri.

A U.S. House committee reported earlier this year that China is fueling the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. by directly subsidizing the manufacturing of materials that are used by traffickers to make the drug outside the country. However, a study by the libertarian Cato Institute found 89% of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers were U.S. citizens and 93% of fentanyl seizures occurred at legal crossing points not on illegal migration routes.

One statistic that bolsters Kehoe’s point: St. Louis County police say that between January 2021 and September 2023, fentanyl was found in more than 1,000 drug seizures, with much of it connected to Mexico and China. 

“Missourians want to know how we’re going to stop it or slow it down,” Keho said. 

But whenever Kehoe mentions China, it opens up criticism of his 2013 vote while serving in the state Senate to lift  Missouri’s ban on foreign ownership of agricultural land. That vote opened the door for China’s largest pork producer to acquire Smithfield Foods and its more than 40,000 acres of Missouri farmland. 

It’s become a huge issue in Missouri politics, and in the governor’s race. And the criticism of Kehoe was amplified this week when The Independent reported his campaign bus is owned by Smithfield’s only Missouri lobbyist. 

Kehoe doesn’t regret his 2013 vote, he said, because the situation in at the time was vastly different than it is today. Now, he favors reinstating that ban. 

“That (vote) happened 11 years ago,” Kehoe said. “Times have changed, and so we would move forward with the position that I have very clearly stated that I do not want any enemy of this country owning anything.”

Tax cuts

Another plank in Kehoe’s pitch to be Missouri governor is to eliminate Missouri’s income tax. 

“Since I’ve been in state government, we’ve cut the income tax from 6% to 4.7%,” Kehoe said. “I have backed $2.4 billion in tax cuts since I’ve been in office. But now, we need to take that to zero. That’s a key to our economic development strategy.”

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the personal income tax accounted for 65% of Missouri’s general revenue. 

Kehoe knows the state still has to fund essential services, but he doesn’t believe eliminating the income tax will hurt Missouri’s ability to pay its bills.

“Putting real money back into people’s pockets and letting them spend it themselves will boost our economy,” he contends. “When the economy grows, the budget will grow with it.”

Kehoe differentiates himself from Ashcroft and Eigel in his support of economic development incentives to lure — and retain — businesses in the state. The difference was on full display after Kansas signed off on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives earlier this year designed to lure the Chiefs and Royals out of Kansas City and across the state line.

Ashcroft and Eigel flatly rejected any notion that Missouri should intervene. 

Taking that stance is foolish, Kehoe said. 

“The economic development business is very competitive, and if you want to have zero economic development, and I mean nothing in the toolbox, that’s fine,” Kehoe said. “You’re gonna get your butt kicked.”

He doesn’t support state funding to build new stadiums, he said, but it makes no sense not to try to keep a large employer in the state — even if that employer is a sports franchise. 

“If somebody said Joe’s Widget Factory — who has been in Kansas City for 60 years, employs lots of people and has a huge economic impact on the community — wants to move to another state, we’d have 800 people saying, ‘whoa, we have to stop this. We can’t let Joe’s Widget Factory move.’ So that’s my point.”

During the campaign, Kehoe has taken criticism for championing a hike in the state gas tax in order to fund road and bridge repairs. Missouri roads were crumbling, Kehoe said, and something had to be done.

A gas tax — “I’d call it a user fee, by the way” — was the way Missouri could ensure it took care of its infrastructure, Kehoe said. 

“Governing is not always popular,” he said. “We were 49th in funding for our roads. Our farm to market roads, what people call the letter routes, they’re in some of the worst shape they’ve ever been. That hurts our number one industry, agriculture. We have to make sure we have bridges that school buses and ambulances and your family can drive across, much less goods that are on tractor trailers that support our economy.”

Education

Over the last two years, Missouri lawmakers have created and expanded a tax-credit scholarship program to help offset the cost of attending private and religious schools. 

Kehoe supports that initiative, saying competition is the best thing that can happen for public education. 

“If a parent is in a school district where their child is not receiving the proper education or the curriculum does not fit their values, they should have an option to be able to look at other districts,” he said. 

There are “550-ish school districts in Missouri,” Kehoe said, “and some districts are hitting it out of the park and some are really struggling. I’m not a reformer who says throw out the bathwater and the baby. Let’s target where we need to have the best fixes and let’s give people some choice.”

While one of his opponents favors completely eliminating Missouri’s department of education, Kehoe believes the department has a bright future. One reason for that, he said, is the state’s new education commissioner, Karla Eslinger. 

A former Republican state senator who was considered friendly to public school advocates, Eslinger was chosen by the State Board of Education to take over following the retirement of Margie Vandeven.

Her experience in education ranges from beginning as an elementary-school teacher in a rural Ozark County school, through the ranks of administration in a couple Missouri schools and a three-year stint as the assistant commissioner in the office of educator quality.

In 2017, then-Gov. Eric Greitens pushed for the board to oust Vandeven in the hopes he could install a commissioner of his choice. Kehoe has no intention of following that path.

“Karla Eslinger is really going to be special,” he said. “ I’m really excited about what Karla will bring to this conversation. I’m a huge fan, and I can’t believe she said yes, quite frankly. She’s a really good person, and I think we’re gonna see some great things out of her.”