MISSOURI – The Republican primary campaign for Missouri governor is just around the corner on August 6. With the race heating up, FOX 2 compared donations made to the political action committees and personal campaign funds backing this year’s Republican candidates.
According to reports made to the Missouri Ethics Commission, the American Dream PAC backing Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe has the lead in donations compared to PACs backing Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and State Senator Bill Eigel.
This year, American Dream received over $4.5 million for Kehoe’s campaign. June was a big month for the American Dream, as they raised over $2 million in donations over $5,000.
Their greatest donor, Rex Sinquefield, has donated a little over $1.2 million. Sinquefield, a retired multimillionaire and investor, has donated millions of dollars to candidates and PACs since 2005.
Herzog Contracting Corporation, a railroad contractor out of St. Joseph, Missouri, was also a top donor, with $1 million given in donations to American Dream in 2024.
Citizens for Kehoe, the candidate’s own campaign fund, raised over $1.7 million by the end of April, with $25,000 raised in June from a donation given by Kehoe himself.
Committee for Liberty PAC backing Ashcroft has received the second-greatest amount of donations this year. With over $1.9 million received by the end of April and $60,855 raised in June.
Steven Craig of Craig Realty Group in Newport Coast, California, was the Committee for Liberty’s top donor, gifting $150,000 to the PAC in March.
Ashcroft’s campaign fund, Ashcroft for MO, had raised over $656,000 by the end of April.
Coming in last, a little over $1 million has been received by the Believe in Life and Liberty, or BILL PAC that has backed Eigel, with $445,000 raised in June. Eigel for Missouri had also raised $727,019 by the end of April, with no donations made in June to his personal campaign fund.
Trial Lawyers for Justice, a national injury law firm out of Iowa, was one of the PAC’s top donors, gifting $100,000 to Eigel’s campaign.