Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe enters the House chamber ahead of his State of the State speech. In February, he signed and executive order banning DEI initiatives from all state agencies. Tim Bommel Missouri House Communications
Years after working as a prominent car salesman known for making deals, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is attempting to sell lawmakers on one of the biggest pitches of his political career.
A massive stadium-funding plan intended to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri.
The plan would open a path for Missouri to potentially offer state aid to help pay for up to half of new or upgraded stadiums for the two teams. It would mark a seismic moment for the Kansas City area, signifying the state’s first major response to Kansas in the protracted fight over the future of the teams.
But amid fierce opposition in the Missouri Senate, whether the bill becomes law remains an open question. Kehoe’s hands-on involvement in pushing for the plan poses a major test of his political clout and well-known ability to foster relationships just five months after taking over the Governor’s Office.
“When the governor gets involved, it makes things a lot easier, because Mike has a lot of trust,” said Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee’s Summit Republican. “Mike just has a lot of credibility in this building.”
Kehoe rolled out the plan to House Republicans behind closed doors early Tuesday morning and circulated a two-page summary promoting the proposal. By the afternoon, at an exceptionally rare speed, the House passed it.
However, hours later, the bill ran into sharp resistance from a bipartisan group of senators when it reached the 34-member Senate. Over the past two days, Kehoe appears to have taken a direct role in trying to get the bill across the finish line — roaming the halls of the state Capitol, pitching the closed-door gathering of House Republicans, joking with individuals and visiting senators’ offices.
Kehoe’s approach is rare for a sitting governor and his predecessor, former Gov. Mike Parson, did not often have such an active role in legislation. But the Chiefs and Royals plan, filed in the final days of the legislative session, might require Kehoe’s way of doing business.
On top of senators’ concerns about the stadium funding itself, Kehoe will have to navigate the plan through a chamber experiencing a constellation of issues that could imperil the Chiefs and Royals proposal.
Lawmakers are frustrated that the measure was filed at the 11th-hour with no input from the general public. They also criticize its cost, pointing to the fact that it was approved by the House days after that chamber cut roughly $500 million in spending that would have funded construction projects across the state.
“I will be supporting this amendment because I am looking at the economic development that we can have,” said Rep. Emily Weber, a Kansas City Democrat. “But I am extremely disgusted and disappointed with the process.”
GOP senators are also still hoping to pass two controversial pieces of legislation that could halt negotiations on the stadium funding proposal: a plan to overturn a voter-approved abortion rights amendment and a paid sick leave law.
As of Wednesday, senators were in the middle of negotiating all three proposals, with information changing by the minute. When asked about Kehoe’s presence at the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, a St. Louis-area Democrat, predicted that the Republican governor was working to get the stadium bill approved.
“I would imagine that’s what he’s trying to do — shore up support for that,” Beck said.
A spokesperson for Kehoe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Ultimate salesperson’
If Kehoe is successful at getting the stadium funding bill across the finish line, it would mark a major political win for the first-year governor.
Kehoe, a former car dealer turned state senator, was propelled to the Governor’s Office through a statewide network of organizations that endorsed him and then devoted significant resources to promoting his candidacy and turning out voters.
He is credited in his 20s with helping turn around Osage Industries, a van conversion and ambulance manufacturing company in central Missouri, before buying a Jefferson City Ford dealership in 1992 and beginning to build a public name around the capital.
“I think the one thing that we haven’t talked that much about is his experience as the ultimate salesperson,” House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, previously told The Star before Kehoe was elected governor.
“He’s going to go to other countries and sell Missouri, and to do that in the run up to the World Cup, I think it could be a recipe for something very special for Kansas City and Missouri,” Patterson said.
Before the stadium funding plan faced pushback in the Senate, Kehoe told reporters earlier in the day that if lawmakers did not pass the bill this week, he would consider calling them back into a special session to get it done.
“Legislators aren’t excited about coming into special sessions,” he said. “But it’s that big of an economic project and that big of an economic impact that in the past it certainly has warranted other governors a special session.”
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this story.
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A reporter for The Kansas City Star covering Missouri government and politics, Kacen Bayless is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in investigative reporting. He previously covered projects and investigations in coastal South Carolina. In 2020, he was awarded South Carolina’s top honor for assertive journalism.