(The Lion) — Although Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has plenty of experience and advisers in his ear, his core convictions, shaped by his Christian faith, are unchanging – and he says it makes all the difference.

“You have to start with what we talked about earlier. You have to have that strong compass,” the governor told The Lion’s Chris Stigall in an interview Thursday. “And in my mind, that’s that strong faith compass. I think that’s a really important part of governing, is to have something solid in your background.”

Christian faith is part of Kehoe’s heritage, in fact.

“The faith is who our family is,” he explained, adding that he is the second Catholic governor and first Catholic Republican governor in the state.

“My mom had great fortitude 63 years ago to name me after a pope,” said Kehoe, whose middle name is Leo. “My mother was a daily communicant. She went to church every morning at 6 a.m. The Blessed Mother, which is big in the Catholic faith, sits on my desk behind me. It was a gift from my mother.”

Seeking office, and then governing once elected, means making decisions that not everyone agrees with, making it even more important to navigate by a “true north,” said Kehoe, who came into office having served as the previous lieutenant governor.

“Without a strong faith background, whatever that faith background may be – (you need) to be able to meet people, get elected, and then actually have some sort of compass as you govern,” he explained. “Because there are very few decisions that you make in this office that everybody agrees with. There’s a total of none. So make sure that you have something you can really believe on in faith.”

Speed of business

Besides faith, the Show Me State governor draws on 35 years in small business in the auto industry and hopes to bring a results-oriented mindset to state government, from economic policy to education.

“I tell people all the time, our cabinet, which is your cabinet, it’s Missouri’s cabinet – that of the 17 men and women who help lead our different divisions, we’re going to work at business speed, not bureaucrat speed, because those are two different speeds,” Kehoe told The Lion.

And he’s eager to “sell” others, including the president of the United States, on the benefits of operating business in Missouri, the heart of the country.

“I love selling the state of Missouri, and we have the best spot in the country for manufacturing – for goods to come in, for products to get out,” he said. “Think of it: four of our five major airports have just been totally remodeled. They’re world class airports. We have the seventh largest road and bridge system in the United States. … We have major rivers running through with port access. We have the second and third largest rail in St. Louis and Kansas City. When you think about shipping and logistics and product distribution, Missouri is your home.”

It was part of Kehoe’s message in an Oval Office meeting a few weeks ago with President Donald Trump, whose own business approach to governing is perhaps his hallmark.

“We benefit greatly by having a strong relationship with the Trump administration,” Kehoe said. “The president knows we’re right in the middle of the country, as he reminds me all the time: ‘Mike, Missouri loves me.’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir, Mr. President, we do love you.’

“I really believe his passion to make America great again, to move our country and our states in the right direction – allowing the states to have states’ rights and that freedom of who we are as a state – is very (important) to Donald Trump.”

Education reform

Kehoe has also wasted no time seeking better outcomes for Missouri education, where it ranks near the middle among states.

“Several different factors out there show us we’re not at the rock-bottom, but we’re certainly not at the top (in education),” he said. “And Missouri needs to be at the top. We’re the Show Me State, and we certainly can do better. And our goal is to get those numbers up dramatically in a very quick period of time.”

In his inaugural address in January, Kehoe announced his intention to support the state’s tax-credit-based school choice program with a $50 million boost from the state budget, which the Legislature approved this week.

If signed by the governor, it will mark the first time Missouri has appropriated funds for the nearly 4-year-old MOScholars program, which currently awards scholarships worth up to around $6,500 to eligible students for educational expenses, including private school tuition.

“We’re really glad our ESA program received that funding and that nod from the Legislature to really give parents a choice to make sure that their child is not educated in a district that is not providing the appropriate education just because of zip code they were born in,” Kehoe told The Lion. “And we believe this is a major step in education reform for the state of Missouri. We’re very excited about it.”

Just this week, the governor also announced appointments to his Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force, created by executive order in January. The members are tasked with reviewing and making recommendations by the end of 2026 about the state’s public education funding formula.

“I’m a fan of public education … but I’m a business guy, and so I think the money we invest, anything we should do, should produce results,” Kehoe explained. “And the foundation formula is almost 21-years-old, and lots of things have changed in education, right?

“We saw that happen through COVID. We see it through virtual education. We see it through homeschooling. We’ve seen it through lots of changes. It’s time for that to be updated.

“We cannot be in an environment where the answer to every time a school has problems with the performance objectives, the answer cannot be, ‘Well, we just need more money.’ That’s not the answer. We need better outcomes. We need better performance.”

Incremental improvement across state government is what Kehoe hopes his legacy will be when he’s all finished.

“That’s what I hope. I want the place to look and act just a little better than when I came in the door.”