Today, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced he is running for governor, and all we can say is please, make it stop. Our majority-Republican legislature and two extremist GOP senators have already packed the circus tent that is now the state of Missouri.
We don’t need another one. Not another book-banning right-winger with a platform that is basically: How can I show Trump what a good boy I am?
Missouri apparently isn’t conservative enough for Ashcroft. In an announcement of his gubernatorial bid, Ashcroft praised Florida, Tennessee, Indiana and Arkansas as “examples of conservative leadership” — examples Missouri falls short of.
“ …Missouri Republicans, who control every statewide office and have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, have failed to deliver,” Ashcroft said in a statement. “I’m running to change that.”
Failed to deliver what? Restrictions on education? An even stricter abortion law? More banned books? Maybe our elections are still too fair, despite Ashcroft’s best efforts.
Ashcroft was right about one thing, though. In a campaign video released this morning, Ashcroft said, “People are done with career politicians.”
Damn straight. But that statement is ironic coming from the highest-ranking nepo baby in Missouri. Ashcroft’s father, John Ashcroft, served as governor, U.S. senator and U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush.
State House Minority Leader Crystal Quade (D-Springfield) summed up the younger Ashcroft’s candidacy pretty succinctly in a statement this morning:
“From the time he was defeated for state senate a decade ago, it’s been clear Jay Ashcroft feels holding office is his birthright based on his father’s accomplishments instead of a sacred duty to serve the citizens of Missouri.”
Even so, the junior Ashcroft, who’s now the state’s top election authority, didn’t vote for his father in a primary when late Governor Mel Carnahan challenged John Ascroft for U.S. Senate in 2000.
Now Ashcroft’s asking Missourians to vote him into the governor’s mansion. Hopefully voters will treat him like he treated his dad and not bother.
The RFT’s Ryan Krull contributed to this story.
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