Caleb Rowden is an American politician and former member of the

Missouri State Senate The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 181,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two yea ...

for

District 19 A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

from 2017 to 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Rowden previously served in the

Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...

from 2013 to 2017. In November 2018, Rowden was elected by his Republican colleagues to be the majority leader in the Missouri Senate's 2019 session. In October 2023, he announced his candidacy in the

2024 Missouri Secretary of State election The 2024 Missouri Secretary of State election was held on November 5, 2024, to elect the Missouri Secretary of State, secretary of state of the U.S. state, state of Missouri. It coincided with the concurrent 2024 United States presidential ele ...

. He was defeated in the August 2024 primary.

Missouri Senate

Rowden was first elected in 2017, and was chosen to be the majority leader for the 2019 session. He became President pro tempore of the Missouri Senate in 2023.

Committee assignments

* Administration (Vice-Chairman) * Gubernatorial Appointments (Vice-Chairman) * Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics (Chairman) * Select Committee on Redistricting * Missouri Arts Council Trust Fund Board of Trustees * Missouri Justice Reinvestment Task Force * Missouri State Capitol Commission

Political issues

Rowden is an advocate for

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

and tax-credit scholarships for private schools, and has received multiple donations from

Rex Sinquefield Rex Andrew Sinquefield (; born September 7, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who has been called an "index-fund pioneer" for creating the first passively managed index fund open to the general public. Sinquefield wa ...

. He introduced a bill in his final term to establish charters in

Boone County, Missouri Boone County is located in the U.S. state of Missouri. Centrally located the state's Mid-Missouri region, its county seat is in Columbia, which is Missouri's fourth-largest city and location of the University of Missouri. As of the 2020 U.S ...

, despite wide opposition from local school boards and superintendents.

Personal life

Rowden is married to Aubrey Rowden, the co-owner of Love Tree Studios, a wedding photography company. They have two children. Rowden himself owns Clarius Interactive, a media and marketing company. He attended the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

Electoral history

State representative

State Senate

References

External links

* , - , - , - 1982 births 21st-century members of the Missouri General Assembly Living people Republican Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives Republican Party Missouri state senators {{Missouri-MOSenate-stub