Carnahan will run for governor if Koster loses in November. Carnahan and his sister, Robin have wanted to run for governor for years. Their dad, Mel Carnahan would have been Kerry’s vice president in 2004 if he had not died. Missouri at the time was a swing state.
MO is a red-leaning state, but it can elect Democrats sometimes.
I think had Mel survived the plane crash, he still would’ve lost to then-Sen. Ashcroft (and given that Ashcroft was a key to the Senate GOP majority, he wouldn’t have then been selected to be Attorney General). I’d have been surprised if Kerry had picked Carnahan to be his running mate 4 years out of office over the more attractive “Breck Girl” Edwards (and Edwards came from NC, which has more ECs than MO, and presumably could’ve put the state in the Dem column, as it did go briefly Dem in ‘08, although solely because of Bob Barr running Libertarian).
Federally, Presidentially and legislatively, Missouri is solidly Republican (I don’t call that “Red”, that’s a deliberate media newspeak color switcheroo from 2000 to disassociate the Dems from their true nature - Red is the historic color of radical leftism (Communism/Socialism/Nazism). Blue is the proper color of the GOP, which should be used every time someone erroneously claims the “Red” for the GOP, which grates on me no end for its offensiveness). Frustratingly, the state votes wrong for state offices. Other than the late Tom Schweich for Auditor (who should’ve been enjoying a primary victory for Governor and an easy romp over Koster), only Peter Kinder has had any luck statewide.
It’s worth noting that in 28 years, only Ashcroft (in 1988) and Matt Blunt (in 2004) has the GOP won the Governorship, not since 1988 and lastly in 2000 have they won Sec of State (Roy Blunt the first time and Matt the second time), not since William Webster in 1988 have they won Attorney General (and Webster’s criminal screw-up paved the way for Mel Carnahan’s Gubernatorial victory in ‘92), and like the Governorship, only Wendell Bailey (in ‘88) and Sarah Steelman (in ‘04) won State Treasurer. To be sure, a terrible record for all these offices at a time when the state has huge GOP legislative majorities. That only Kinder has a statewide office at present (and by a thin-as-a-nail margin) is a disgrace. The Dems should’ve died there after the ‘90s. Consider how strongly the GOP dominated statewide offices in the 1980s even when they were underperforming for Congressional seats and a decided minority in the legislature from 1931 until 2001/03.