Political Viewpoints: Gov. Kehoe reflects on state, national current events in Q&A

On a typically busy day that had him trekking across the state from Branson to St. Louis, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe stopped by the Springfield Business Journal office Oct. 30 for an exclusive interview that covered myriad topics, such as assessing his first year in office, congressional redistricting, international trade and views of the federal government shutdown.  

SBJ: How would you characterize your first 10 months in office? What do you see as your top accomplishments to date?  
Gov. Mike Kehoe: Well, every day is a new day with different challenges, to be honest with you. From the spring storms to issues in legislative session, the special sessions, we had a full 10 months so far. We worked through some pretty tough issues and not everybody’s agreed with the solutions that we’ve crafted. But our public safety bill was the first bill – a bipartisan vote, by the way – to get out, and before spring break, that was our No. 1 priority. So, we felt really proud about that. We passed some really good bills dealing with education. Plus, we were able to pass through both the chambers $50 million and educational savings accounts, or ESAs, for Missourians who feel like they need an option for their child. That was a big accomplishment for us. We passed as part of our economic development package probably one of the largest single-year tax cuts when we relieved state tax on capital gains for Missourians. And a lot of people are trying to push that now as, oh, that's a tax cut for a really wealthy people. That’s for Missouri family farms. Almost all of our Missouri family-owned farms are LLCs and family businesses that they would like to pass on to other generations. So that was a huge part for our agriculture community. So it was good for economic development, but it was really good for our agricultural community as well. When you look at the things that we said we wanted to get done in our State of the State speech, our first one that we did after I got sworn in, we really checked the box on most of the things that we were trying to move forward for Missourians.  

SBJ: On the other side of the coin, anything that you would label as disappointments that you wanted to accomplish that didn’t get done this year?  
Kehoe: Well, I wouldn’t say a disappointment, but the budget’s going to be very challenging. It was last year [fiscal 2026], it will be again this year [fiscal 2027]. Most of the federal flow through money that was coming because of COVID or some of those activities that happened in 2020 are pretty much done now. Or are completely done, I should probably say. So, the days of making sure that we do a good job of balancing the budget and actually not spending all Missouri’s money when we don’t have to is really important to me and other legislators. That challenge is going to continue to get a little bit tough. I would say that was one of the bigger challenges. 

SBJ: When you are looking at some of Missouri’s smallest communities out in the rural areas, where do you see business opportunities and where do you see challenges?  
Kehoe: Well, in the smaller communities, I think our workforce is a really good strength for us. We find in our Missouri smaller communities, I would say across the state, especially in rural Missouri where you have a lot of farmers and farm families who understand what starting at 4 or 5 in the morning is like and sometimes working past dark, those folks are also willing to participate and be part of the workforce as are their children, etc. What we have to offer in rural Missouri is really strong Missouri Christian values as well as a really thriving workforce opportunity. Obviously, acquisition costs in rural parts of the state for business are a lot more affordable maybe than in a metro area. That’s nothing against the metro areas, it’s just the way the market works. So, if they’re trying to acquire land to build a building, we see a lot of companies looking a little bit more to the rural side of Missouri. But if you have a company that needs to be right on an interstate or has access to an airport or rail line, then you’re seeing those folks come more to the metro areas.  

SBJ: As for big-city areas, where is there economic opportunity? What kind of challenges need addressing? 
Kehoe: Well, we passed a huge bill this year, Senate Bill 4, which was a utility bill so that we make sure, No. 1, that as we provide additional power generation that the costs aren’t born on the backs of the average consumer. But it also makes a regulatory framework so that industrial customers who need what we call base load power, Missouri probably has one of the best power grids and systems now in the United States to handle that industrial demand. When those companies are looking to move to Missouri, that’s a good thing to know that we have that framework in place. Again, that was a bipartisan bill that was passed in the House and Senate. I’m grateful to the leadership who passed that. That’s No. 1.  

Tax policy’s really important. We talked about the capital gains piece, no state income tax on capital gains, and then regulatory reform is really important. And I would say the biggest piece of any industrial or economic development movement, whether it’s urban or rural, is also public safety. Companies aren’t going to build and expand, have retail customers come in, have their employees come in unless they think they’re safe. So public safety is a big piece of economic development. That's why we’re so happy to have that public safety bill. One of, if not the, first bill to pass this session. That gives local law enforcement and regional law enforcement the tools they need to do their job. And we’re a big fan of the men and women who protect our communities, all the first responders, and I think that was a big piece for them. 

SBJ: Regarding the tax policy you mentioned, on the flip side of that are incentives. Do you see particular incentives that you want to grow or develop for boosting economic development in the state?  
Kehoe: We’re looking at fine-tuning a few things now, a wholesale change in our economic development toolbox. We've got some really good tools. We have a sunset coming up on what we call our economic development closing fund, so that would be something we work on to get through this session. We’ve used it effectively for many years. But rightfully so, it has I think a four- or five-year sunset. This is maybe the third or fourth time to look at maybe renewing it. But you need economic tools in a toolbox to be competitive with other states. There are a lot of people who say, ‘Hey, we shouldn’t pick winners and losers. We shouldn’t put economic development tools like that or incentives on the table.’ But if we don’t, we also need to hang a sign up that says, ‘We’re not open for business.’ If we want to compete with other states, we got to be in the market. I think we’re very competitive, and tax policy, again, is a big piece of that. Regulatory reform, tax policy, economic incentives, all of those things have to go together.  

SBJ: Are there any industries in particular that you are targeting to try to grow in the state?  
Kehoe: Well, as you’ve seen, the state has made record investment in infrastructure over the last couple of years, specifically six-laning I-70 in the center part of our state and now significant investment in I-44 in this area. Transportation logistics continues to be a big strength of ours, not just in roads, but with rivers, airports, etc. We believe that companies looking to get on that transportation network, whether it’s to bring raw goods in or finished goods out, we have a very big strength in that. That, combined with some of our plant science and life science technology that we have with different research centers that we have both here in Springfield as well as in Columbia and other places, we think those are some strengths as well.  

SBJ: Regarding the congressional redistricting effort that was undertaken earlier this year, do you feel there’s a risk that could backfire come midterms? Where do you stand on it after that process was completed? 
Kehoe: We call it the Missouri First Map. Our existing congressional map was bogged down in both the House and Senate for months in 2022. When it was passed, nobody really liked it because the districts didn’t meet some of the constitutional muster that we thought, especially congressional District 3. Here down in the 7th district, nothing was really changed. Neither in the 8th as well. But we had some problems in mid-Missouri, so the House and Senate took up a new version. We think that represents Missouri’s values much stronger than the previous map. About 90% of Missouri counties have Republicans in the courthouse, and so that’s a significant number, and we thought that there was a way to reflect Missouri’s values a little bit better in Washington, D.C., so we designed the Missouri First Map and they passed it. Obviously, you've seen the news that there’s some court challenges and different things going on there. But should that survive the way it is – and I hope it does, by the way – we will have a congressional race that’s in congressional District 5 that has a different makeup than it does now. The existing congressman lives in that district, so I assume he will run again, but we’d like to have a shot at winning that as a Republican seat.  

SBJ: Did you feel any federal pressure to take on this effort?  
Kehoe: No. As you’ve seen, a lot of states are tackling it. Texas was the first one right now. We did it right after Texas. Indiana, I think, is looking at it right now. Nebraska, several other states are looking at the way to do this. I don't want to get real partisan, but a lot of people have said, ‘Well, the Democrats have really gerrymandered some states.’ I'm like, ‘You don't have to look to the East or West Coast. Just look at Illinois.’ If any of your readers read this article, go Google the Illinois congressional map. They’ll laugh out loud when they see it. It’s so gerrymandered. It’s unbelievable. The Missouri First Map is much more compact. It interrupts less counties. I think it meets the constitutional muster that our founding fathers wanted the congressional districts to have. So, I believe it’s a good map for Missouri.  

SBJ: Would you have taken on that project this year if it wasn’t for the Trump administration’s kind of pressure and talking about the need for redistricting?  
Kehoe: To be clear, the Trump administration didn’t put pressure on us, but they certainly opened the dialogue by saying, ‘Let’s start looking at some of these congressional districts.’ I would say that when [Texas] Governor [Greg] Abbott said, ‘Let’s look at this and get going,’ he really started a conversation with a lot of governors, more than in Washington, D.C., but for everybody to start looking at it.  

SBJ: You’re the CEO of your own state, right? This is Missouri and you run this, but what kind of pressure do you get from the Trump administration, from the federal government, and has that changed with this president?  
Kehoe: Really, I’ve developed a relationship with President Trump and his staff and in a good way, especially when you have massive storms come through your state, and the first person that calls me in the morning is Kristi Noem, [the secretary of Homeland Security]. She is asking me, how is everybody? The next person’s calling me personally is President Trump. How is everybody? What can we do to help? I think those are great relationships to have. I don’t know that we have pressure one way or the other. We are working with Secretary [of Agriculture Brooke] Rollins on a lot of agriculture issues right now. Missouri is one of the states she’s been to more than any other state in the union. So, building relationships – and that’s who I am – as well with House and Senate members, I think it's important to have relationships with the administration in Washington. In my opinion, that works out well for a state when you have that.  

SBJ: The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center is reporting that Missouri exports went up by double-digit percentages for several trading partner countries in the first six months of the year. That includes Italy, Israel, South Korea, France and India. Do you see that being more of a trend now of sales increases like that happening possibly even for the rest of your term, or do you expect there could be some headwinds from the new tariffs?  
Kehoe: We’re in a global economy and my first trade mission was to France, specifically to the Paris Air Show, to talk to suppliers who want to supply parts to Boeing for the new F-47 project and the existing F-15EX, and that was very successful. We talked to other companies while we were over there. We’ve done a really good job of developing a great, great relationship with Israel. We’ve seen a lot of their companies that have incredible technology, especially in the health care sector, move to Missouri and establish a U.S. headquarters here in Missouri, which has been fabulous. I’ve been on a trade mission under then-Gov. [Mike] Parson to Germany. We’ve seen international flights added as because of that trip. So, I think Missouri is positioned well because, again, of our logistics, our supply chain and where we are to compete in the global economy. We need to continue to compete in that because we have some of the best products and producers of agriculture products in the world, so we need to capitalize on that.  

SBJ: Do you have other trade visits scheduled?  
Kehoe: We’re looking at Israel for sure. I don’t have a specific date on that. Again, we have a lot of great partnerships over there. I know Ireland has some opportunities, South America, some opportunities. We’ll continue to go on those only if we see an opportunity to get a company to start doing business here or maybe locate here or with the product trade that we do. A lot of our exports, our No. 1 exports, are ag products. We have partners with organizations who are in those countries who are looking for opportunities for us to come over and hopefully help close the deal or at least solidify a relationship.  

SBJ: What are you hearing from Missouri businesses as far as the impact of tariffs on our state economy?  
Kehoe: So far, businesses have worked through it. It hasn’t sometimes been fun. I’ve talked to several businesses who are buying a certain piece of equipment, for instance, and it’s only made in some country in Europe, and they’ve seen a tariff and they’re trying to figure out how to bring that in. But you’ve got to remember from a businessman, if you’re buying a multi-dollar piece of manufacturing equipment and there’s an additional tariff on it, you’re amortizing that piece of equipment over 20 or 30 years. So, the tariff might be a little bit higher; it might over a 20- or 30-year period add a little bit more to the cost. It’s not something we like, but businesses understand how to plan that into their business plan to make sure it still works. Look, the president, I think, has negotiated some great deals. America has been taken advantage of for many, many years, and I think he has that in his mind. He’s a negotiator. That’s what he does. That’s his strength, and I believe that when this dust settles, I think we’ll end up on the good end of most of these deals. 

SBJ: As the federal government shutdown continues, I saw data from your office that the gross state product is estimated decline by roughly $232 million each week the shutdown extends, which could lead to an increase in unemployment of about 800 workers in Missouri under a one-month shutdown. Can you comment about that impact on Missourians and your thoughts about the shutdown? 
Kehoe: Certainly, we’re aware of the effects that’s going to have in multiple areas. My big concern is in (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and (Women, Infants and Children program) and some of the other programs that we have. We recently announced some initiatives to help with some funding through our area aging agencies. We call them the AAAs. That won’t be enough, but it’s a help. And we’re also encouraging Missourians to engage with their food pantries locally as much as they can. That’s a volunteer effort. Maybe that’s a donation. Missourians know how to take care of each other, and we’re hopeful that this shutdown doesn’t last much longer, to be honest with you.  

SBJ: Do you support subsidies for folks that need to access the marketplace? A lot of Missourians have to access that either for income or because their employer doesn’t offer it or they’re self-employed. You’re seeing that a lot of Missourians will have increased costs next year as they go to enroll actually pretty soon.  
Kehoe: The health care exchange was a big piece that a lot of Missourians [who] were underinsured or uninsured weren’t able to access. That’s a piece of what we need to make sure we keep our eye on. I’m a free-market person. Less government in my mind is always better, but to the extent that we can offer a product where we let companies or individuals pool into the health care process is the best way to do it. Health care in general is a mess, not because of any local providers or doctors or pharmacies you have, but just because the process is so tough to navigate. We are working very closely with the hospital administration and others in that stakeholder group, insurance companies, to start figuring out how we can do better at offering the health care product along with our providers to make it less onerous on Missouri families that work.  

SBJ: So that might be a longer-term solution. But in the interim, do you support the subsidies continuing?  
Kehoe: Yeah, I think we’re going to have to figure out a way to do that. I’m not in favor of subsidies for undocumented or illegal folks in this country. I think Missourians and certainly people across the country pay taxes to help those in need that are U.S. citizens, and I do not believe we should be subsidizing any of the health care costs for folks who are here illegally.  

SBJ: Regarding the state providing appropriations for food assistance amid the federal government shutdown, how did you arrive at that decision, and how long do you believe that funding will last?  
Kehoe: Missouri has very different constitutional guidelines on spending money than maybe other states do. I think this is probably a good thing to let governors keep governors in check, unless they have an appropriation. So, we don’t have from the general assembly an appropriation or a dollar amount or pot of money to be able to go and backfill a SNAP benefit or something like that. What we were able to identify that we were able to do is we worked very hard with a senator many years ago out of Barry County, David Sater, who did a great job. Matter of fact, we signed the bill as governor at the Springfield Senior Center here when I was acting governor for Governor Parson that established a pool of resources for our area aging agencies, and we were able to deploy that money into the market. That’s part of our announcement that we made. And then we were able to take some [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] money that’s a federal program that’s already out there. It was a payment that we were going to be making later in the year to pull that forward, to use that to offset some of the WIC issues and different things that are out there. We don't have the mechanism to be able to load a SNAP card in Missouri. That goes through a federal bank and it’s complicated. We don’t have the mechanism or the cash to do that, so we want to do some of these other programs to help offset that.  

SBJ: How long do you feel that that money will last?  
Kehoe: Well, it’s not going to last forever. I think we can get WIC benefits maybe through the end of November. We’re hopeful the area agency money will go through the month of November. We’re pretty confident on that. But what you don’t know is what the reactions going to be from the market coming Nov. 1. My No. 1 hope is that they vote on the bill and open the government back up. That’s the right thing to do.  

SBJ: There appears to be weakening job growth nationwide but how do you feel the state is doing overall in availability of jobs? 
Kehoe: We’ve seen our employment rate pretty much flat. It’ll tick up a 10th of a point, and then tick the other way a 10th of a point. For the most part, employers are still reporting that the economy is doing pretty good. Global markets need to be open and interest rate reductions need to continue to happen. We just had another one this week [of Oct. 27], and I believe that we can continue to bring those interest rates down. By the way, the interest rate challenges along with a tough market for commodity farmers have been a real challenge to our agriculture system. So interest rates cuts are very important to us. But Missouri, for the most part, our manufacturers and companies are very conservative, and they watch the market pretty closely, so they don’t overproduce versus demand. It is always something you want watch closely, but we’ve seen pretty steady economic activity in Missouri for the last several months.  

SBJ: So you favor another cut in December?  
Kehoe: Definitely. I’m a small business guy by trade, and I can tell you that what happens when interest rates come down, businesses will invest in expansion of equipment, our resources, our buildings or whatever. And when expansion happens, job growth happens. Those are good things. And when the cost of money is at the right spot for the business to make a business case out of making that investment, you’ll see a lot of investment happening. Definitely believe that we need continued cuts in that rate, and I’m thankful for what we got, but I think there’s a lot of room to go.  

SBJ: After the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in September announced its plans to revise the state’s child care licensing rules following your executive order, what is the next step to reforming child care and addressing workforce needs in that area? 
Kehoe: One of the bigger steps is we need to keep the kids safe, but we need to get government out of the way when we can. And so we’re trying to get our arms around how we expand child care. Before COVID, one of the markers everybody talks about, we had child care, but it wasn’t great in availability. And then in COVID we lost 20% of our total availability. So, we really went down in the ditch and now we’re trying to build that back up. Workforce is a big issue for child care providers because some of them were under a federal reimbursement rate that caps how much you can pay a person. So that’s been a challenge for them. But being able to work through the executive order we put out and work with DESE on how we open up child care, how we work with churches and not-for-profits, open up child care. We have some great models with that. And then on the business side, we have some businesses and some who have done it very successfully, who have opened up child care centers as part of their business plan and kind of offering what the fringe benefits might be for that individual employee and being able to shift some of those resources towards child care. We’ve worked with multiple organizations, United WE out of Kansas City is a woman’s empowerment group, as well as the state chamber, local chambers, and business groups to continue to figure out how we build our child care resources. It is an issue that really helps solve some of our workforce pieces as well.  

SBJ: The federal government has made some shifts to the way that it takes in immigrants and the H-1B program, different types of programs like that, that bring in workers into our country. What, in your view, is the role of the immigrant population in the state of Missouri’s economy and workforce? 
Kehoe: Well, the H-1B folks that come in, mainly a lot of the agriculture companies end up using – there’s others, but agriculture uses a lot of them. When they do that right and legally and proper, it works very well. There’s a little bit in southwest Missouri, there’s a whole lot of that activity in southeast Missouri, and I’ve seen where those farm families have used that process to work very well. I am 100% for closing our borders because we have too many people – over 10 million in four years have come into the country. A lot of those people have filtered up into Missouri. And the No. 1 cause of death in Missouri between an 18 and a 44-year-old is fentanyl, and a lot of the fentanyl is coming across that border. We have done a good job of locking that border down. I’ve been down there twice. I’m going again in a few weeks to make sure that we keep the America first policies that would make sure that most families who came here, including mine in the 1880s, came here legally. And that system works, and that’s the system we need to follow.  

SBJ: So, you support the legal path to immigration. Would you characterize that as an important part of our economy?  
Kehoe: Yeah, it’s important part of the fabric of who we are as a country, and that’s how this country was built.  

SBJ: Heading into the next legislative session, what are among your top priorities? 
Kehoe: Continue tax policy issues. Many states have eliminated their state income tax, and there’s a couple of models out there that we’ll be looking at to see if we can work with local legislators like Curtis Trent, the senator in this area has been really active in tax policy. Again, I think that’s a big piece for economic development. Continuation on educational opportunities for Missourians. We have a current group of people who are working on the funding formula, what we call the foundation formula for our K-12 education. It’s at an all-time high, over $4 billion right now. We got to make sure that that funding formula is updated to reflect the current educational needs of parents and students, plus has measurable outcomes that work. We can’t have kids getting out of 12th grade who read at a third-grade level, for instance, and then the school district says, ‘Well, we need more money.’ No, that's not the fix to the problem. We’ll have a full agenda to do. The budget will be the No. 1 thing. It’s constitutionally the only thing we have to do in the legislature, but there’ll be some challenges there trying to work through a tough budget year.  

SBJ: You feel these will be challenges more so than even we faced this year?  
Kehoe: Oh yeah, definitely. I think this year and next year, I think the budget picture gets even more challenging.  

SBJ: What are the main contributors to that challenge?  
Kehoe: Well, like I said, it’s mainly federal growth of dollars that aren’t coming back into our state anymore. Our general revenue, which is about a third of our budget typically, continues to show a nice progress to zero income tax, etc. It’s the other side of it where we’ve had kind of an economy that with term limits, we’ve had state legislators, House and Senate members who are used to flush budget years, and that’s not a slam on anybody. It’s just the environment they’re used to, and they haven’t been through a tough budget year. So trying to make sure everybody understands and knows that. We’ll have enough money to fund everything we need to fund, but there might not be extra left over.  

SBJ: How would you describe your leadership philosophy?  
Kehoe: Well, I try to do what I do with business and with my family. It’s all about relationships for me. So, there’s very rare days in session that I’m not walking the halls of the Capitol going into offices, Democrat, Republican, House, Senate, statewide offices, asking them what’s going on, what can I do to help? What’s important in your district? What do you need? You might need something in your district that’s not related to a budget item. It might be something that’s just got some mixed up in some legislative craziness or something that maybe I can help you find some folks to help you get passed. And it’s important to me to continue those relationships. My leadership style is very much hands on. I’m not a micromanager. We’ve got great cabinet members, they got great staff in the governor’s office to do a lot of the really behind the scenes work, and I’m kind of more the front guy.  

SBJ: Who would you say are your group of advisers in running the government?  
Kehoe: Previous elected officials. Roy Blunt is definitely a great friend of our family’s and I think was an incredible statesman for this district as well as the U.S. Senate and his role there. Previous folks that were in public policy are really important to me to get a little bit of bounce on, and quite frankly, the business community. When the business community is investing and things are going well, our economy does well. And so I pay a lot of attention to business leaders and chambers. You have a great active chamber down here, one of the best in the state. But chamber of commerce and businesses, listening to them, I would say is probably the biggest key I can have.  

SBJ: There’s lots of different metrics of what success is, but what are those key ones for you?  
Kehoe: Well, for me, it will be that we improve, again, our public safety model across the state. And I think when we do that and we see economic growth and continued investment and people wanting to stay in Missouri or move to Missouri, I think that will a great sign of accomplishment. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. And our population has not grown. It’s been very flat and down sometimes, and we need to make sure we create that environment that gets people to want to stay here and work here. I have four kids, three of them in the state. I want them to want to stay in Missouri. I want other businesses and young people to want to come here. Missouri State [University] just passed a bill and signed here in Springfield about a month ago that enables them to offer some additional degree programs, and they think that’s key to keeping some of those students after the fourth year that were going to go to another school to get it here in the Springfield area, here in Missouri. So, things like that that we can do incrementally to encourage folks to stay in Missouri and went to be in Missouri is really important.  

SBJ: How do you think wage growth might play into that? We talk a lot in southwest Missouri about the brain drain, that we educate a lot of folks and when they graduate, they’re not going on to those next degrees, but they’re leaving our community for what they perceive are better opportunities.  
Kehoe: Again, you have to be able to create an opportunity for them to get employed here in Missouri. Sometimes, they’re leaving here because the industry and the specialty that they’re in is not here. Now, we can’t be all things to all people, but again, concentrating on some of the key agricultural areas, it’s our No. 1 industry. And a lot of people say, agriculture, I don’t want to go out and plant corn. Well, thank God, by the way, somebody does want go out and do that. But agricultural marketing, what technology needs in agriculture, I mean packaging and all the different things. Convoy of Hope is going to have one of the leading packaging centers in the United States for mass food packaging. There’s a lot of things that can go with the ag industry that can really present opportunities to young people. And our growth in that industry nationally is going to continue to get unbelievable. But different sectors like that. We mentioned the health care sector, especially when it comes to life sciences, plant sciences, animal sciences, we have a lot of opportunities there. And look, Missouri’s always been a good manufacturing state. We talked earlier about a trade mission to France because of new Boeing projects. Boeing has vendors that they do business with in over 60 of our 114 counties. They might be in St. Louis, but the ripple effect from that aerospace industry is massive in Missouri. Aerospace is big. Automotive is still big here. So, focusing on our strengths and what we have here, trying to figure out a way to expand them to offer those opportunities is critical. And last, but not least, I’d say in the workforce development piece, we’ve started this, we’re getting better. We need to make sure especially our public universities, our career and technical schools, as well as our K-12 systems, understand what the need is. So, if somebody comes to them and says, ‘I want to get a degree in A, B, C,’ but there’s no need for A, B, C in Missouri, we’re maybe counseling those people to say, ‘Hey, there’s not a big need for that, but there is a need for this with aerospace, whatever it is.’ So, we continue to work with career counselors in K-12, not college counselors that try to guide young men and women’s decisions based on what the market is that we need here in Missouri. I think that’s a key to keeping people here as well.  

SBJ: As you are 10 months into this role, what are the surprises? 
Kehoe: An EF-3 tornado going through downtown St. Louis, that’s a surprise. We had a time March 15, 2025, where in 26 counties, we had 22 sighting of tornadoes, we had 50 wildfires, and we had 104 road incidents in a 12-hour period. It's tough to work through some of those. You go to those communities, and their entire house is in the field next to them or their sofa’s up in the tree. We had 12 deaths with that storm in March. We’ve had additional deaths with storms after that. Two weeks later, we had massive flooding down in West Plains, Missouri, that they've never seen before. So the Mother Nature events are not predictable, obviously. It’s hard to plan for. Although our emergency coordinators, again, in regions, do a great job. Those are the tougher ones that kind of work through. But we’re doing it. We have a great team and those are surprises you’re just never ready for.  

SBJ: Have you surprised yourself in any ways taking on this role?  
Kehoe: I don’t think so. It’s not something I feel like it was a destiny or anything. I really felt strong about trying to put common sense, conservative Christian, kind of a business background slant to state government and see if we can make a difference. We tell all of our cabinet members, and everybody who’s been around me knows that we’re done making decisions in state government at bureaucratic speed. We’re going to make them at business speed now. We’re going to make it a speed that Missourians expect, businesses expect. Try to create an environment that really does have a flashing neon sign that says we’re open. That’s what I hope to gain out of all this. 

Interview excerpts by Reporter Mike Cullinan and Executive Editor Christine Temple, mcullinan@sbj.net and ctemple@sbj.net.