Missouri Chamber of Commerce endorses Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe in race for governor in 2024

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday endorsed Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe in his bid for governor in 2024.

“Mike Kehoe knows how to get things done and knows how to get things done in that dome building down the street,” Dan Mehan, the chamber’s president and CEO said in Jefferson City Tuesday. “We need effective leadership and Mike will provide that.”

While the announcement from the group’s political action committee comes more than a year before the election, the backing from one of the state’s biggest business policy groups may prove consequential in the race. Kehoe faces a Republican primary featuring Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and state Sen. Bill Eigel, who entered the race on Friday.

Kehoe on Tuesday touted his perspective as both lieutenant governor and as the business owner of a car dealership in Jefferson City.

“It’s an unbelievably humbling opportunity to be not only standing here in front of this building, but to work in that building just down the street,” Kehoe said Tuesday. “I have a unique perspective, coming through life. And I’m going to use that perspective and those experiences and the relationships I have here.”

Support from one of the state’s most influential and prominent pro-business groups is noteworthy as Kehoe tries to make an impression among donors and voters highlighting his journey from humble beginnings to a business owner and politician. The chamber’s website boasts support from some of the state’s largest businesses including Amazon, AT&T, Centene, Enterprise Holdings, Stifel and World Wide Technology.

Mehan said Tuesday that the chamber’s PAC invited each of the candidates for governor to a Zoom call to talk about their vision for Missouri. The PAC’s board unanimously selected Kehoe, he said.

Eigel, a hard-right senator from Weldon Spring, on social media attacked the organization prior to Tuesday’s announcement, saying the group “supports raising taxes, expanding Obamacare Medicaid, picking winners and losers through special tax treatments, and declared nearly every member of MO Senate Dems a “Business Champion.”

Ashcroft, in a statement from his campaign, attacked the chamber and Kehoe, downplaying the news as “the least surprising endorsement issued in this race.” In July, Missouri Right to Life, the state’s leading anti-abortion group, endorsed Ashcroft over Kehoe.

Whomever wins the Republican nomination for governor in 2024 will face House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat, in the general election. Quade will face an uphill battle to take the office in a state that has grown increasingly conservative.

Republicans hold every statewide office and a supermajority in both chambers of the General Assembly.