Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, 49, recently announced his candidacy for governor, and one of his policy efforts is expected to be school choice.
“I do believe Jay Ashcroft has already come out with some really strong statements about school choice and being in favor of parents deciding where their kids go to school, which is an issue that I care very much about,” said Jean Evans, executive director emeritus of the Missouri Republican Party.
Ashcroft is entering an open field because current Gov. Mike Parson is not seeking re-election.
“I don't think school choice has been one of Gov. Parson’s main policy efforts whereas Ashcroft has said publicly that school choice is one of the main issues he's running on,” Evans told the St. Louis Record.
As previously reported in the Record, the only choice program currently available through public schools is education savings accounts for the low-income and students with disabilities who are located in very small communities of 30,000 or more.
"In neighboring states like Arkansas with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and in Iowa with Gov. Kim Reynolds, these Republicans are leading on school choice and educational freedom and it appears that Jay Ashcroft is going to run similarly,” Evans said in an interview.
Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe announced his candidacy for governor in 2021 and Senator Bill Eigel (R-Weldon Spring) established an exploratory committee for the same purpose.
“Ashcroft has already won statewide office by a huge margin and he has a substantial statewide following so I think he's definitely a lead contender,” Evans said.
Ashcroft said in a statement announcing his candidacy last week that Missouri is falling behind other GOP-dominant states because Missouri Republicans 'failed to deliver on conservative policies, according to media reports.
"I think his name ID certainly helps him so anyone running against him is going to have to raise a substantial amount of money to get their name ID as high as Ashcroft's because right now Ashcroft is one of the most well-known political names in the state," Evans added.
Ashcroft also has the name ID of his father John Ashcroft who was a U.S. Attorney, state auditor, attorney general, governor, and U.S. senator.
“Red states like Florida, Texas, Tennessee, even Indiana, and Arkansas, have become examples of conservative leadership while 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 to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. "I’m running to change that."