Who’s the Governor of Missouri? Kehoe’s Agenda and Battles

The governor of Missouri is Mike Kehoe, a Republican sworn in as the state’s 58th governor on January 13, 2025. Kehoe, a former car dealer and lieutenant governor from central Missouri, won the November 2024 election with about 59% of the vote, defeating Democratic House Minority Leader Crystal Quade by roughly twenty points.¹

Background Before Politics

Kehoe was born on January 17, 1962, in St. Louis, the youngest of six children raised by a single mother.² He has no college degree, one of the few sitting governors nationwide without one. His predecessor, Mike Parson, also lacked a degree.³

He started washing cars at Dave Sinclair Ford at 15 and worked his way into sales management.²⁴

Kehoe is married to Claudia, and the couple has four adult children. They operate a 700-acre cattle farm in Phelps and Pulaski counties, where Kehoe is a first-generation farmer.⁵

How He Reached the Governor’s Office

Kehoe’s public career began in 2005, when Governor Matt Blunt appointed him to the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission. He was elected its chairman in 2009.² He won a Missouri Senate seat in the 6th District in November 2010 and served eight years, rising to majority floor leader and chair of the Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions, and Ethics Committee.⁴

When Governor Eric Greitens resigned in June 2018 and Lieutenant Governor Mike Parson moved up, Parson appointed Kehoe, then a term-limited senator, to the vacant lieutenant governor’s post.⁶ The Missouri Democratic Party sued, arguing the governor had no authority to fill the seat. In April 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court sided with Parson, holding that the state constitution lets the governor fill public-office vacancies when no other method is set by law.⁷ Kehoe won a full term as lieutenant governor in 2020.⁴

With Parson term-limited, Kehoe entered the 2024 governor’s race and raised over $11.4 million in combined campaign and PAC funds by mid-2024, outpacing his Republican rivals.⁸⁹¹⁰¹

What Governor Kehoe Is Doing in Office

Kehoe has organized his administration around public safety, education, economic development, and agriculture.¹¹ On inauguration day he signed six executive orders and launched a “Safer Missouri” initiative covering crime reduction, law enforcement recruitment, and cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.¹²

Public Safety and the St. Louis Police

Crime has dominated Kehoe’s early tenure. His flagship program, Operation Relentless Pursuit, created nine regional teams pairing Highway Patrol investigators with local deputies to serve outstanding felony warrants. In its first year, the program reported arresting 1,585 fugitives, clearing 2,699 warrants across 83 counties and seven other states, and apprehending 26 suspects on murder or homicide charges. The state appropriates $1.25 million a year for the effort.¹³

In March 2025, Kehoe signed House Bill 495, returning the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to state control after more than a decade of local oversight. The law creates a Board of Police Commissioners made up of five governor-appointed members and the mayor, with the board holding hiring and firing authority over the police chief. It passed on party-line votes. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones called the law “a sham” and said crime had been declining under local management. Kehoe said the measure fulfilled his promise to “make Missouri safe again by making St. Louis safe again.”¹⁴

In April 2026, he signed juvenile crime reform legislation making it easier for prosecutors to charge minors as adults for violent offenses. The Missouri Legislative Black Caucus opposed the bill, citing concerns about disproportionate impact on Black youth.¹⁵ Additional executive orders have directed the Highway Patrol to pursue federal 287(g) immigration enforcement training and required arrest reports to include immigration status data.¹²

Eliminating the Income Tax

Kehoe’s top fiscal goal is phasing out Missouri’s individual income tax, which at 4.7% supplies roughly 65% of general revenue.¹⁶ The legislature placed the resulting plan, Amendment 5, on the August 4, 2026, primary ballot. It would require lawmakers to set revenue-growth triggers governing the pace of income tax cuts and give them a five-year window to expand or raise the state sales tax to replace lost revenue. Analysts have projected the sales tax rate could climb as high as 11.5% if the base is not broadened.¹⁷

The Missouri Association of Realtors, leading the opposition, has called it “the largest expansion of sales taxes in Missouri history.” A Cole County judge rejected a legal challenge in June 2026, and a Western District Court of Appeals ruling required the ballot summary to tell voters explicitly about the legislature’s expanded taxing authority.¹⁸¹⁹ ProPublica reported that a PAC supporting Amendment 5 called Missouri Promise PAC received $1.9 million from a Delaware-incorporated nonprofit that does not disclose its donors, drawing accusations of hypocrisy given Kehoe’s public complaints about out-of-state money in Missouri politics.²⁰

Education and School Choice

Kehoe’s State of the State speech proposed $50 million for Education Savings Accounts, a $200 million increase for the school foundation formula, and $370 million for school transportation.¹⁶ An executive order directed the state education department to develop an A–F grading system for schools based on standardized test performance. A broader education package backed by Kehoe collapsed in the final days of the 2026 session when lawmakers could not agree on geographic expansion of charter schools, though Kehoe had signaled willingness to compromise.²¹

Budget Cuts

Kehoe inherited a nearly exhausted COVID-era surplus. His fiscal year 2027 budget proposal totaled $54.5 billion, with $16.3 billion in general revenue, about $600 million less than the prior year. He requested $527 million in supplemental funding and warned the state’s surplus would drop from $4.3 billion to just $4.7 million by June 2027. “The days of excusing budgetary decisions with fund balances and ‘so-called surpluses’ are over,” he said.²²

When he signed the fiscal year 2026 budget in June 2025, Kehoe used 208 line-item vetoes and placed restrictions on 32 additional items, cutting $300 million in general revenue spending and holding another $211 million. The vetoes eliminated more than half of the earmarks lawmakers had included and hit road projects in the districts of top legislative appropriators. Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough publicly disputed Kehoe’s justification, noting state revenues were actually running slightly above projections.²³

The Fights Defining His Term

Congressional Redistricting

In September 2025, Kehoe signed the “Missouri First” congressional map, a mid-decade redistricting that redraws the Kansas City-area district held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to heavily favor Republicans.²⁴ Opponents collected over 305,000 signatures to force a veto referendum, but Secretary of State Denny Hoskins declined to certify the petition. On May 12, 2026, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously that submission of referendum signatures does not automatically suspend the law, leaving the new map in effect for the 2026 election cycle.²⁵ A separate NAACP Missouri Conference lawsuit challenging the map was pending as of late May 2026.²⁶

Raising the Bar for Citizen Amendments

Kehoe is also backing Amendment 4, which would change the rules for citizen-led constitutional amendments. These measures currently pass by a simple statewide majority. Amendment 4 would require approval in every one of Missouri’s eight congressional districts, giving any single district veto power. The higher bar would apply only to citizen-led amendments, not those placed on the ballot by the legislature. The Missouri Association of Realtors has donated $2 million to oppose it. Kehoe placed Amendment 4 on the August 4, 2026, primary ballot rather than the November general election, a move critics argue produces a lower-turnout electorate more favorable to passage.²⁷

Abortion

Missouri voters passed Amendment 3 legalizing abortion in November 2024. Kehoe, who has said Missouri values “a culture of life” and proposed $4 million in additional funding for pregnancy resource centers, said after the vote that it was “too early to say exactly how” Republicans would respond, but expressed openness to exceptions for the health of the mother and cases of rape and incest if the legislature sent him such a bill.²⁸²⁹

1
Missouri Secretary of State. 2024 General Election Results
2
Missouri Senate. Senator Mike Kehoe Biography
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Columbia Missourian. Is Gov Mike Kehoe the Only Governor Without Any Higher Education
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The Missouri Times. Mike Kehoe: A Timeline of His Career
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Office of the Governor of Missouri. About Governor Kehoe
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The Missouri Times. Governor Parson Names Mike Kehoe as Next Lieutenant Governor
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Justia. Cope v. Parson, SC97284
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The Kansas City Star. Key Endorsements and Financial Data in the Missouri Governor’s Race
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KRCG. Gov Parson Officially Endorses Mike Kehoe for Governor
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Missouri Secretary of State. 2024 Primary Election Results
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Office of the Governor of Missouri. Office of the Governor
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First Alert 4. Missouri Governor Kehoe Signs 6 Executive Orders After Inauguration
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First Alert 4. Missouri Task Force Arrests Over 1,500 Fugitives in First Year
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Missouri Independent. Gov Mike Kehoe Signs Bill To Put St. Louis Police Under State Control
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KFVS12. Missouri Governor Signs First Laws of 2026
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St. Louis Public Radio. Missouri State of the State 2025
17
Missouri Independent. Judge Keeps Missouri Plan To Replace Income Tax With Expanded Sales Taxes on Aug. 4 Ballot
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Missouri Independent. Judge Keeps Missouri Plan on Aug. 4 Ballot
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KCUR. Missouri Amendment 5 Ballot Language
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ProPublica. Mike Kehoe Missouri Amendment 5 Dark Money
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Missouri Independent. Charter School Fight Sinks Missouri Education Package
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Missouri Independent. Missouri Revenue Surplus Nearly Gone
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Missouri Independent. Missouri Governor Hits Earmarks With Veto Pen
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St. Louis Public Radio. Missouri Supreme Court on Map Targeting Rep. Cleaver
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Votebeat. Missouri Congressional Map 2026 Election
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Missouri Lawyers Media. Missouri Supreme Court Congressional Map Ruling
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Missouri Independent. Missouri Realtors Spend $2 Million To Fight Amendment 4
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Office of the Governor of Missouri. 2025 State of the State Address
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St. Louis Public Radio. Kehoe on Missouri Abortion Legalization