Mike Parson

Michael Lynn Parson (born September 17, 1955) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of Missouri since 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Parson served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011 and in the Missouri Senate from 2011 to 2017. He served as the 47th lieutenant governor of Missouri under Eric Greitens from 2017 to 2018. He was sworn in as governor on June 1, 2018, upon Greitens's resignation; he served the remainder of Greitens's term and was elected governor in his own right in 2020.

Parson was the sheriff of Polk County from 1993 to 2004. He was a member of the Missouri legislature, serving in the House from 2005 to 2011 and the Senate from 2011 to 2017. In 2016, he ran for lieutenant governor alongside Greitens. They won the election, and Parson was sworn in on January 9, 2017. In 2018, Greitens was federally indicted on (later withdrawn) charges of invasion of privacy; he resigned on June 1 amid legislative impeachment proceedings, at which time Parson became governor.

As governor, Parson signed a bill criminalizing abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy and opposed Medicaid expansion. He oversaw the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing a temporary stay-at-home order in April 2020 but allowing schools 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.

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 at the rank of sergeant. While in the Army, he attended night classes at the University of Maryland and the University of Hawaii, without completing a degree.

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. He was reelected in 2006 and 2008. 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 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 along with Governor Eric Greitens on January 9, 2017. 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's.

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 he 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 (LIHTC) 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. The ''Columbia Tribune'' reported in 2017 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.

National endorsements

Parson endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election and Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

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 that "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; in 2019, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled, in a 5–2 decision, that Parson had the legal authority to make the appointment.

Parson appointed Robin Ransom to the Supreme Court of Missouri; she is the first African-American woman to serve on the Court.

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 supports efforts to encourage Missourians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.Jim Salter
Missouri governor's 'Christian values' statement questioned
Associated Press (February 4, 2022). 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".

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 run. The chairman of Parson's political action committee released a poll to see whether voters would vote for Greitens or Parson in a Republican primary election; the chairman then said, "I don't expect reitensto 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. He then defeated Democratic nominee State Auditor Nicole Galloway in the November 3 general election.

Tenure

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.

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 5 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 abortion providers.

COVID-19 pandemic

As of March 13, 2020, Parson had announced the first two known cases of COVID-19 in Missouri: one in St. Louis and one in Springfield, with both in self-quarantine. Parson said his administration had received $13 million in federal aid to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and that of every test taken for the virus, only those two were positive. He said the virus was not spreading in Missouri. On March 17, he announced that Missouri had 15 confirmed cases. Parson said the state would expand to 10,000 tests per day by April 1 and would look into more protective measures for law enforcement and firefighters. He said that his declaration of a state of emergency in Missouri freed $7 million in funding to fight the virus. Despite the virus's contagiousness, Parson delegated the decision to close schools to school districts. After similar actions by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly

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