Peter Kinder honored with Lifetime Achievement award by Missouri GOP

Former Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Missouri Republican Party during the GOP’s 2023 Lincoln Day this month in Springfield, Missouri.

Kinder is a Cape Girardeau native who went to Cape Girardeau Public Schools, and attended Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri. He then went on to earn a law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio before his career in politics. Kinder was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1992 — representing much of Southeast Missouri including Cape Girardeau — before eventually becoming Senate president pro tem. He would later serve as the 46th lieutenant governor for the state from 2005 to 2017.

Kinder said he felt “enormously humbled” by the award.

The former legislator said he was most proud of helping usher in the Republican majority in the state’s government. Democrats controlled Missouri’s government for a majority of the 20th century.

The long-held majority flipped at the turn of the century. David Limbaugh — Kinder’s longtime friend and the person who introduced Kinder at the award presentation — said it was good policy from Kinder, and others, turning into good politics, allowing conservatives to gain a foothold that they have maintained ever since.

Kinder credited the takeover to a contentious “partial-birth abortion” ban bill he sponsored in 1997. The bill passed initially but was vetoed by then Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan. Proponents of the bill fell one vote short of overriding the veto. Kinder said vote tallies for that bill were used heavily in subsequent campaigns, allowing Republicans to eventually flip the Senate.

Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award include former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and former Missouri Sen. Ron Richard.