Mike Kehoe scores another $250,000 from Missouri mega donor Rex Sinquefield

For the second time in a year, the political action committee supporting Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe’s 2024 bid for Missouri governor has received a $250,000 check from the state’s most prolific donor.

Rex Sinquefield, a retired investor from St. Louis, gave the same amount to Kehoe’s nearly one year ago. Over the last decade, Sinquefield has given more than $41 million in campaign contributions — mostly to Republicans, though not exclusively.

Kehoe is a Republican from Jefferson City hoping to take over from Gov. Mike Parson when term limits force him from office in 2024. The PAC supporting his candidacy, American Dream PAC, has raised more than $755,000 since reporting $1.2 million cash on hand at the end of October.

Two other Republicans are either actively considering a run or expected to enter the GOP gubernatorial primary.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has said he hasn’t made up his mind on whether to run for governor in 2024, though his candidacy is considered likely. The PAC supporting him, Committee for Liberty, reported $1.3 million cash on hand at the beginning of December.

A PAC supporting state Sen. Bill Eigel, who earlier this year declared he will will explore a run for governor,  reported $270,000 cash on hand at the end of October and has raised $32,000 since then in large donations.

Raised in a St. Louis-area orphanage, Sinquefield made his fortune after founding the money management firm Dimensional Fund Advisors. He retired in 2005 and returned to Missouri.

Since then, he has donated millions through the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation to various causes, including a music composition program at the University of Missouri in Columbia and the St. Vincent Home for Children, the orphanage where Sinquefield grew up.

A huge chess enthusiast, Sinquefield worked to turn St. Louis into the nation’s chess capital by relocating the World Chess Hall of Fame there.

He also began spending big in politics, primarily in service to his main policy priorities: Revamping the state’s education system and eliminating the Missouri income tax.