JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe said Monday he won't jump in the race for Missouri's open U.S. Senate seat next year, announcing he would instead run for governor in 2024.
Kehoe, 59, said in a statement "my true calling remains to work on behalf of Missourians in Missouri as lieutenant governor and as a candidate for governor in 2024."
The state's No. 2 official expressed interest in the race after Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., announced earlier this month he wouldn't seek a third term — prompting a long list of Republicans and Democrats to say they were weighing the possibility of entering the 2022 Senate contest.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who, like Kehoe, publicly said he was considering a Senate bid, has also passed on the race.
Ashcroft could opt to run for governor in 2024, but unlike Kehoe, he didn't make that announcement when he issued a statement forgoing a Senate run.
Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican who has said he wouldn't run for reelection or for the Senate, appointed Kehoe lieutenant governor in 2018, after Parson's predecessor, Eric Greitens, resigned.
Kehoe won a full, four-year term, defeating Democrat Alissia Canady and two other candidates in the November general election.
Greitens officially announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate Monday evening. Other GOP elected officials to express interest in Blunt's Senate seat include Attorney General Eric Schmitt, and U.S. Reps. Ann Wagner, Jason Smith and Billy Long.
Three Democrats have announced their candidacies: former state Sen. Scott Sifton, D-south St. Louis County; Lucas Kunce, a Jefferson City native who has branded himself a "progressive populist"; and Timothy Shepard, a political activist from Kansas City.
State Sen. Brian Williams of University City, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and St. Louis attorney Elad Gross are among Democrats expressing interest.
