Mike Parson
Michael Lynn Parson is an American politician and former law enforcement officer who served as the 57th governor of Missouri, from 2018 to 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Parson assumed the governorship upon the resignation of Eric Greitens, under whom he served as lieutenant governor from 2017 to 2018. Parson served the remainder of Greitens's term and was elected governor in his own right in 2020.
Parson served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011 and the Missouri Senate from 2011 to 2017. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2016. He assumed the governorship on June 1, 2018, upon Greitens's resignation. As governor, Parson signed a bill criminalizing abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy and opposed Medicaid expansion, both of which were overturned by ballot measure. He oversaw the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing a temporary stay-at-home order in April 2020 but allowing school districts to decide whether to close.
Parson placed restrictions on mail-in voting during the 2020 U.S. elections, and oversaw Missouri's reaction to the George Floyd protests, which included pardoning a couple who pointed guns at unarmed protesters on their private street. He shortened the sentence of the son of Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, who seriously injured a child while drunk driving.
Early life, education, and career
Michael Lynn Parson was born on September 17, 1955, in Wheatland, Missouri, and raised on a farm in Hickory County. He graduated from Wheatland High School in 1973.Parson enlisted in the United States Army in 1975, and served six years in the Military Police Corps, discharged in 1981 with the rank of sergeant. While in the Army, he attended night classes at the University of Maryland and the University of Hawaiʻi, without completing disciplined study at either institution.
Parson returned to Hickory County in 1981 to serve as a sheriff's deputy, and transferred to the Polk County Sheriff's Office to become its first criminal investigator in 1983. He served as Polk County sheriff from 1993 to 2004.
In 1984, Parson purchased a gas station and named it Mike's. He eventually owned and operated three gas stations in the area.
Missouri General Assembly
Parson was first elected to the 133rd District in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2004, and reelected in 2006 and 2008. During his tenure, he chaired the House Rules Committee. In 2007, Parson co-sponsored a bill to expand castle doctrine rights.In 2010, Parson was elected to the Missouri Senate. He had signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to raise any taxes. He served as the Senate majority whip during the 96th General Assembly. He was reelected in 2014, running unopposed in both the Republican primary and general election.
Lieutenant governor of Missouri
Campaign
Parson initially announced he would run for governor in 2016, but opted to run for lieutenant governor instead. After defeating two opponents in the Republican primaries, he faced Democratic former U.S. Representative Russ Carnahan, whom he defeated in the general election on November 8, 2016.During his campaign, Parson was criticized by his former chief of staff for allegedly proposing legislation on behalf of a lobbyist, and a $50,000 plan to employ a valet for his vehicle. Parson claimed his former staffer was a "disgruntled former employee".
Tenure
Parson was sworn in on January 9, 2017, along with Governor Eric Greitens. Noting that the lieutenant governor's office had not been upgraded in the past 12 years, Parson approved $54,000 in remodeling and renovation costs during his first two months in office.In 2017, Parson sought a $125,000 increase to his $463,000 budget, which included $35,000 to reimburse him for travel mileage during state business. He also sought $10,000 for out-of-state travel. In 2018, he asked for an additional $25,000 to pay for a part-time personal driver but decreased his overall budget request to $541,000. In response to criticism, his office routinely stated that his office and salary was the smallest of any statewide elected Missouri official.
Parson was the only statewide elected official to accept gifts from a lobbyist in his first six months in office, reporting $2,752 in meals and gifts. Parson's predecessor, Peter Kinder, also accepted gifts.
After allegations of improper care at the Missouri Veterans Home in St. Louis, first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in October 2017, Parson's office launched an investigation.
On February 22, 2018, Greitens was indicted on felony invasion of privacy charges. The indictment came a month after Greitens disclosed an extramarital affair, which only increased speculation that Parson could succeed Greitens should he step aside or be removed.
Low-income housing tax credit industry
On December 19, 2017, Parson voted to keep a $140 million state tax credit intended for developers of low-income housing. Greitens had appointed members to the Missouri Housing Development Commission who opposed the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, and had publicly called the program "a special interest scheme that makes insiders rich." Parson and then-state treasurer Eric Schmitt were the only members to vote to keep the tax credit. Before the commission's vote, Greitens had publicly opposed the tax credit, after a bipartisan audit of the program showed that only 42 cents of every dollar were being spent on low-income housing. In 2017, the Columbia Tribune reported that Parson and Schmitt were "among the top 10 Republican recipients developer contributions over the past 10 years."Governor of Missouri
On May 29, 2018, Greitens announced that he would resign effective at 5:00 pm on June 1, 2018. Parson was sworn in as governor half an hour later.Parson endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election and Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. He was the Missouri Honorary Chairman of Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, filing his state's reelection paperwork for Trump in 2019.
2020 election
After filing to run for his first full term in the 2020 gubernatorial election, Parson, when asked if he would plan to run for another term in 2024, said, "I don't see that in my future." Amid rumors that Greitens would run for governor again in 2020, Parson's team said they doubted Greitens would consider another gubernatorial campaign. The chairman of Parson's political action committee released a poll asking voters whether they would vote for Greitens or Parson in a Republican primary election. The chairman of the pro-Parson PAC, Uniting Missouri, said he did not expect Greitens to run.After denying implementation of voting by mail in Missouri, when asked about voters who have concerns about going to a polling place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Parson said such people should not vote.
Parson defeated state representative Jim Neely and Air Force veteran Saundra McDowell in the Republican primary on August 4, 2020, and Democratic nominee State Auditor Nicole Galloway in the November 3 general election.
Abortion
On May 24, 2019, Parson signed bill HB 126, known as the Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act, criminalizing abortions in Missouri after eight weeks of pregnancy. Under the law, anyone who performs an abortion after eight weeks could be charged with a Class B felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison. The bill, passed in both General Assembly chambers the week before after debate and protest, has no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, but does have an exclusion for medical emergencies. A federal judge blocked the law a day before it was to go into effect, but left an exception for the "reason ban" portion of the bill prohibiting abortions on the basis of race, sex, or diagnosis of Down Syndrome.In October 2021, the Parson administration added a new rule that would allow state agencies to share health inspection reports about abortion providers with one another, which could make it easier for the state to withhold Medicaid funding from those providers.
Appointments
In June 2018, Parson appointed Missouri Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe lieutenant governor. The appointment came with legal uncertainty, as the Constitution of Missouri states: "The governor shall fill all vacancies in public offices unless otherwise provided by law" but a Missouri law stated that the governor can fill all vacancies "other than in the offices of lieutenant governor, state senator or representative, sheriff, or recorder of deeds in the city of St. Louis." The Missouri Democratic Party challenged the appointment in court and, in 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-2 decision, that Parson had the legal authority to make the appointment.In December 2018, Parson proposed repealing a voter-approved constitutional amendment to establish nonpartisan redistricting of state House and Senate districts. The Associated Press estimated that a nonpartisan redrawing of districts would likely increase Democrats' share of state House and Senate seats. At the same time, Parson expressed support for making it harder to put issues up for ballot referendum.
Parson appointed Robin Ransom to the Supreme Court of Missouri, the first African-American woman to serve on the Court.
In 2021, Parson demanded that David Steelman resign from the University of Missouri System Board of Curators after Steelman raised concerns of a conflict of interest on the part of university lobbyist and Parson adviser Steven Tilley. Steelman was the longest-serving curator on the board at the time, and opposed Parson's nomination of former Republican party leader Todd Graves. Parson broke a filibuster on Graves's appointment by making a deal with the Democrats, and replaced Steelman with real estate investor Keith Holloway.
In 2022, the Missouri Senate adjourned without considering the nomination of Donald Kauerauf as director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, effectively ousting him from that post. Some Senate Republicans had opposed Kauerauf's nomination because Kauerauf supported efforts to encourage Missourians to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In defending Kauerauf, Parson said he "would not have nominated someone who does not share the same Christian values" he holds. Parson's statement was criticized by many, including the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, interfaith groups, and State Representative Adam Schwadron, a Jewish Republican, who pointed to the No Religious Test Clause of the U.S. Constitution. After receiving blowback, Parson's spokesperson said the governor had no "litmus test for appointments".
In 2023, state Democrats called upon Parson to withdraw his appointment of Timothy Faber as chair of Missouri's Human Rights Commission after Faber testified against a LGBT anti-discrimination bill on behalf of his employer, Missouri Baptist Convention. Faber did not identify himself as member of the commission until questioned.
In 2024, Parson's support of Kehoe and Andrew Bailey attracted scrutiny in the run-up to state elections for lieutenant governor and attorney general. For a letter to the leadership of Republican Attorneys General Association about Bailey, Parson used official gubernatorial letterhead, potentially in violation of state law. Bailey also featured prominently in a 2023 advertisement paid for by the Department of Labor. Candidates for the 2024 gubernatorial election alleged that Parson leveraged a press conference to advance Kehoe's campaign.