The rundown on Missouri’s down-ballot races: Here’s what you need to know
Missouri’s gubernatorial race may claim most of the spotlight, but there are contests for four other statewide offices that voters will see on the ballot Nov. 3. Three of them make decisions touching just about every state resident, from how you can vote to where your tax dollars are invested.
Lieutenant Governor
The main reason the lieutenant governor matters? He or she could be governor in a hurry. Gov. Mike Parson held the office when Eric Greitens resigned in disgrace in 2018.
Parson appointed the Republican incumbent, Mike Kehoe, 58, a state senator from Cole County who had been serving as Missouri Senate Majority Leader.
As he runs for a full term, Kehoe is focused on boosting Missouri’s economy. His office heads the Buy Missouri economic development initiative, a program created by Parson, to recognize and promote businesses that sell Missouri-made products.
Alissia Canady, 41, a former Kansas City Councilwoman, is Kehoe’s Democratic challenger. Prior to serving on the council, Canady was an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County. She was also a 2019 candidate for Kansas City mayor, finishing a strong third in a field of 11.
Canady has campaigned on decreasing gun violence, addressing health disparities and promoting education. If elected she would be the first Black candidate to win a statewide election.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State’s duties include business registration and oversight of the state archives. But Republican Jay Ashcroft, 47, who is seeking a second term, is best known — and most controversial — as the state’s chief elections officer.
Ashcroft has been the public face of an election system that critics say is confusing and unfair because of its rules governing absentee and mail-in balloting. He has urged Missourians to vote in person if possible and estimated that one in every 50 ballots that are mailed-in might not be counted because of voter error.
Ashcroft was also one of the most vocal advocates of reinstating a portion of 2016 voter ID law, which was struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court in January. He’s long been in favor of overhauling Missouri’s current initiative petition process by creating a $500 filing fee, which he said would be a way to deter frivolous petitions.
Democratic opponent Yinka Faleti, 44, a Nigerian-American Army veteran, former prosecutor and non-profit executive, says Ashcroft has partisan motives for keeping the voting rules as they are.
Faleti pledges that if elected he will make voting easier and more accessible, expanding and simplifying mail balloting and establishing “no-excuse” absentee voting.
Faleti says he will also protect the integrity of the initiative petition process.
State Treasurer
The state treasurer oversees Missouri’s $4 billion investment portfolio and the state’s unclaimed property, among other duties. Scott Fitzpatrick, 33, was a state representative from far southwest Missouri when Parson appointed him to the post in 2019, replacing Eric Schmitt.
Fitzpatrick headed the task force that oversaw allocation of federal CARES Act funding and drafted a plan to restart the state low-income housing tax credit, which received final approval by the state in late September.
Vicki Englund, 46, a St. Louis County native and small business owner, is Fitzpatrick’s Democratic challenger.
A former Missouri House member who served in the Small Business Administration under President Bill Clinton, Englund says she has a 100-step plan to revive the state’s economy.
Attorney General
Republican incumbent Eric Schmitt, 45, was state treasurer before Parson appointed him to replace Josh Hawley in early 2019 after Hawley’s election to the U.S. Senate.
Serving as the state’s chief legal officer, Schmitt has focused on violent crime He created the Safer Streets Initiative, which cross-designates lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys to federally prosecute violent crime.
He was at the center of controversy over the summer when Parson asked lawmakers to give the attorney general’s office the power to prosecute homicides in St. Louis. Parson had been critical of St. Louis Circuit Attorney, Kimberly Gardner, asserting that she was too weak on violent crime.
At the same time, Schmitt attempted to intervene in the felony case brought by Gardner against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protestors.
Democrat Rich Finneran, 36, a federal prosecutor in St. Louis from 2010 to 2017, charged that Schmitt has used the office to promote a political and social agenda. He said he will avoid politics and work on the protection of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion.
Finneran came under fire last week for overdue property tax payments, prompting calls to disqualify him from the ballot.
He’s since payed the $837 in personal property taxes he owed to Saint Louis County, as reported by the Springfield News-Leader.