Missouri Secretary of State Ashcroft tests negative for COVID-19 after event with Parson
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has tested negative for COVID-19 after campaigning with Gov. Mike Parson last weekend.
Ashcroft, a Republican and the state’s top election official, took the test Wednesday evening after his office had previously suggested he would not require one.
After Parson announced Wednesday that he and his wife, Teresa Parson, had both tested positive for COVID-19, The Star asked four statewide GOP officials who had campaigned without masks with the governor in Springfield days earlier whether they planned to get tested.
Representatives for Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Missouri Scott Fitzpatrick quickly confirmed that they had all tested negative for the virus.
Asked whether he would get a test, a spokeswoman for Ashcroft downplayed the risk to the secretary of state.
“Sec. Ashcroft’s recent interactions with the Governor and First Lady fall well short of the ‘close contact’ threshold (within 6 feet for 15 minutes),” said Ashcroft’s spokeswoman Maura Browning, referring to comments from Randall Williams, the director of Missouri’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Ashcroft faced criticism on social media after The Star and other media outlets published Browning’s response.
However, Browning said Thursday that Ashcroft did receive a test roughly 90 minutes after she had suggested that he didn’t need one.
“Yesterday, the Secretary visited St. Joseph, Chillicothe, Kirksville and Hannibal, meeting with local officials and media to promote voters’ options in the upcoming November election. His Hannibal stop was at 4:15, just after the Governor’s test was made public,” Browning said in an email.
“Once he returned to Jefferson City around 6:30 p.m., he was tested and received word that his test was negative. Sec. Ashcroft said today that he has a job to do and is taking proper precautions when traveling.”
