Anti-LGBTQ Missouri Sec Of State Launches Bid For Gov

The Associated Press reports:

Missouri’s top election official Jay Ashcroft on Thursday announced he is running for governor as a Republican. The secretary of state is campaigning to replace GOP Gov. Mike Parson, who is prohibited by term limits from running again in 2024.

He faces a primary election that will include Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who announced plans to run for the state’s top executive office in 2021.

“Red states like Florida, Texas, Tennessee, even Indiana and Arkansas, have become examples of conservative leadership while Missouri Republicans, who control every statewide office and have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, have failed to deliver,” Ashcroft said. “I’m running to change that.”

Read the full article. Ashcroft last appeared here when he proposed defunding public libraries over LGBTQ and race-related books. Before that Ashcroft appeared here when he backed a lawsuit that would prevent the courts from reviewing congressional maps.

Ashcroft’s father, John Ashcroft, now 80, served as Missouri governor before being elected to the US Senate, eventually finishing his political career as US Attorney General under George W. Bush. The elder Ashcroft then launched a lobbying firm that includes defense contractors as clients.

Ashcroft sat out last year’s #mosen battle royale between Schmitt, Greitens, Hartzler and Long. He enters the #mogov‘s race with arguably the biggest name — a name that has been on the gov’s office before with his father https://t.co/Wc9PUmZAGl

— Bryan Lowry (@BryanLowry3) April 6, 2023