Former Republican state senator Dr. Bob Onder has entered the race for Missouri lieutenant governor in 2024.
“I want to make sure that future generations get to grow up in a Missouri that is prosperous and free,” Onder said in a release. “For too long, we have failed to use our Republican majorities to get real work done for the people of this state, and that has to change.”
While the position of Missouri lieutenant governor doesn’t wield as much power as some other statewide positions, the person in this role does preside as president of the state Senate, making tie-breaking votes in that chamber when necessary.
Additionally, the lieutenant governor acts as governor if the state’s top executive is out of state, disabled, dead, impeached, convicted of a crime or otherwise abdicates the position.
Onder served one term in the Missouri House of Representatives, from 2007-2008. He was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2014 to represent District 2, which covers parts of St. Charles County. He served two terms in the state Senate, leaving office in 2022 due to term limits.
He is a member of the Missouri State Medical Association and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. Onder graduated from Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis University School of Law.
“I am unapologetically pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, and pro-MAGA Republican,” Onder said. “If elected, I will work to put an end to China snatching Missouri farmland out from underneath family farmers, get liberal special interests out of our schools, and protect tax dollars from being used to fund liberal priorities like DEI programming in state government.”
Onder, who is a former board member of Missouri Right to Life, has already gained the coveted single endorsement from the organization in the August 2024 primary election.
Dave Plemmons, chairman of Missouri Right to Life’s political action committee, points to Onder’s legislative record as reason for the endorsement.
“As state representative and state senator, Dr. Bob Onder has been a stalwart champion of pro-life legislation and strategy,” Plemmons said in a release. “He knows the issues intimately and understands the threats to Missouri’s Right to Life posed by pro-abortion allies and colleagues that exhibit indifference even when confronted with the truth. Missouri cannot afford to have executive mediocrity when life is at stake.
Missouri Right to Life’s PAC has also issued a single endorsement for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in his bid for the Republican nomination in the August 2024 primary. With competing ballot initiatives hoping for a spot on a ballot in 2024, abortion-rights are sure to be a contentious issue in Missouri’s political races.
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Onder faces competition in the Republican primary from Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, Sen. Holly Rehder, Franklin County Clerk Tim Baker and former Republican St. Louis County executive nominee Paul Berry III.
Onder has already padded his campaign accounts with a $500,000 contribution of his own personal funds in October. His brother, attorney James Onder, donated an additional $500,000 in November to Onder’s joint fundraising committee, Great Missouri PAC.
This makes him well matched with candidates already in the race who have been raising funds for months. According to the most recent comprehensive campaign finance reports issued Sept. 30, Plocher had $519,000 in his campaign account and $759,000 in his PAC, Missouri United.
Thompson-Rehder had $241,000 in her campaign fund and $162,000 in her joint fundraising committee, Southern Drawl PAC. Baker and Berry both filed limited activity reports with the Missouri Ethics Commission, meaning that they had less than $500 in donations or expenses.
On the Democratic ticket, state Rep. Richard Brown of Kansas City and Anastasia Syes, of St. Louis County, are running for lieutenant governor, according to Missouri Ethics Commission filings. Syes has no money in her campaign account, while Brown had just over $5,000 in his candidate committee at the end of September.