Missouri Republicans on Saturday chose former Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder as their new chairman.
Kinder beat former state Sen. Bill Eigel to succeed Nick Meyers as Missouri GOP chairman. The party’s central committee made the decision at a meeting in Jefferson City.
Party committee members chose Columbia lawyer Jennifer Bukowsky as vice chairwoman.
Kinder served three terms as lieutenant governor from 2005 through 2017. He also spent 12 years in the Missouri Senate, emerging as the first Republican president pro tem in a generation after a series of special elections in 2001.
The Cape Girardeau native left electoral politics in 2017 after he came in third place in the 2016 Republican gubernatorial primary. President Donald Trump appointed him as the co-director of the Delta Regional Authority, a post he stepped down from in 2018 for private sector opportunities.
Gov. Mike Kehoe endorsed Kinder’s bid to become party chairman. Kinder told the Southeast Missourian in December that his goal as chairman was to tamp down factionalism in the party.
Eigel sought the GOP chairmanship after coming in second place in last year’s Republican gubernatorial primary. The Weldon Springs resident hinted that he may jump back into the electoral fray next year, especially since there will be an open race for St. Charles County executive.
