State lieutenant governor begins campaigns in Northwest Missouri

Jun. 21—Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe drew in a small crowd on Friday afternoon at the United Electric Cooperative in Savannah, Missouri, as he embarks on his gubernatorial campaign ahead of the August Republican primary.

In May, Kehoe, R-Mo., announced he would be running for governor in the 2024 state elections.

"I think the small business background, I've signed both sides of a paycheck, I've worked with people, I've had risk capital up, I've worked with banks to make loans, I've created jobs, hundreds of jobs in my career," Kehoe said. "I think that perspective really gives you a unique piece when you look at policy as you run for any kind of office."

Kehoe joins Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, R-Mo., and state Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Mo., among others, on the ballot for governor.

Kehoe, Ashcroft and Eigel are leading in the polls for the Republican Primary happening on Aug. 6, 2024.

"The latest poll I saw just this morning ... he's climbed within the margin of error on the poll, and so he's going up while the others are going down and that's the way it's supposed to work," said state Rep. Dean VanSchoiack, R-Mo.

Because the campaign was hosted at United Electric Cooperative, there was enough space for people to attend.

United's CEO said hosting Kehoe was a great opportunity to get the community involved.

"United's part of the community and in Andrew County, you know, it's a rural community, so we have a facility big enough to host our elected officials, and we gladly do that," said Jim Bagley, CEO of United Electric/United Fiber. "So when our representative, Dean (VanSchoiack) asked us to do this, we gladly accepted the opportunity to help the community get more involved with the electoral process."

State Sen. Rusty Black, R-Mo., was also in attendance. He said Kehoe's stops across the state mean a lot to rural communities.

"I think it's important for the people I represent in Northwest Missouri, for them to understand people running for statewide offices that represent, what, 114 counties? Plus the city of St. Louis realize an area that's fairly low populated is still valuable to our state," Black said. "So that's what I want people to watch this, to realize that Mike Kehoe thinks Northwest Missouri, the agriculture industry and people of Northwest Missouri are darn important for the livelihood, the good of the entire state of Missouri."