Peter Kinder aims to unify Missouri's GOP as potential new party leader

Former Missouri Lt. Gov. and Cape Girardeau native Peter Kinder appears poised to become the new leader of the state’s Republican Party after officially receiving an endorsement earlier this week from Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe.

Kinder spoke to Kehoe about the position during a phone call after Kehoe won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the August primary. Kinder told Kehoe he would have to consider it before agreeing to accept the endorsement.

“He said, ‘Well, there's plenty of time. I'll call you after the November election’, which he had to get through anyway,” Kinder said. “He called after Nov. 5, and I said I would like to meet face to face. He said he would like that also, so we met in St Louis and agreed on a plan to go forward.”

If elected by his peers Saturday, Feb. 1, Kinder will replace current chairman Nick Myers, who has held the position since 2021 and is stepping down. Kinder said his main goals as GOP chairman would be increasing party fundraising and “ramping up” data processes and technology.

“We will also focus on something that was a theme of mine when I was in office, and that is going to precincts and ZIP codes where Republicans ordinarily don't show up and asking for the votes,” Kinder said. “I mean the inner city and minority neighborhoods and communities, and having dialogue with them about the needs in their communities. That will include asking them, ‘How has voting 70-plus years for one party turned out for you?’”

Kinder said his message to the party “will be one of unity.” He acknowledged that there are different factions within the party that want different things but said he has support from each.

“When I was Senate leader, the first Republican in 53 years between 2001 and 2005 when we took over the majority that has endured since then, we grew that majority in each of the elections under my leadership,” Kinder said. “My message will be that we're all on the same team, and we need to pull in the same direction. Of course, we're going to have issue differences, but we need to tone down some of the bitter accusations, and shut down tactics and the purity tests that some people want to impose. …

“I will say, also, that one of the keys to succeeding in this, that I learned when I was Senate leader, is to keep the 50% of folks who hate my guts away from the other half who haven't made up their mind yet.”

Kehoe and others in the Republican Party have cited Kinder’s “conservative values” — which include shrinking the “gigantic federal government,” lowering taxes and maintaining the “highest level of religious liberty for Missourians” — in addition to his experience in the state government as a key reason for his endorsement.

“They're all expansions of our guarantees of our liberty. That's the common theme found throughout,” Kinder said. “They are principles that go back not only to the founding of America, but they predate the founding of America.”

Currently, Kinder serves in government relations with Mercy Hospital Southeast and helps with some of its fundraising. Kinder originally joined the hospital in 2019 when he was signed to a yearlong consulting contract by former SoutheastHEALTH CEO Ken Bateman. After that contract expired, Kinder was approached in the spring of 2021 and was asked to join in the government relations role. Despite potentially heading the state’s Republican Party, Kinder said he will continue to work with Mercy.

“It's been a great partnership to bring Mercy to Southeast Missouri with their ramped-up modern health care that they're bringing in here,” Kinder said. “We're very excited about what that's meant to not only the greater Cape Girardeau area but to all of Southeast Missouri. We have a hospital at Dexter in the Bootheel, where hospitals have closed in recent years. We're on the front lines of rural health care.”

Kinder may face opposition for party chairman, specifically from outgoing state Sen. Bill Eigel, who told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier this week that he is considering a run for the position. Kinder, however, feels he is still the right choice to lead the party.

“Depth of experience combined with a positive vision for unifying our party and bringing us together to win many victories that lie ahead (make me the right choice),” Kinder said. “I would stress that in that effort, I have support from all factions in the party, and I don’t think any other candidate can say that.”