- I'm Scott Faughn.

Join me for an in-depth look at the life and the career of Missouri's 57th Governor, Mike Parson.

(upbeat music) I'm Scott Faughn.

Welcome to this Look at the life and the legacy of the 57th Governor of the State of Missouri, Mike Parson.

You know, when you think of the great Governors of this state, Governor Fletcher, Governor Bond, Governor Hearnes, Governor Stark, Mike Parson's time in office will go down in history as probably the one of the most consequential terms in state government.

Now we're gonna talk to some of the people who worked alongside him in his historic administration, starting with his Lieutenant Governor and now his successor as Governor-Elect, Mike Kehoe.

Thank you for the time.

- Hey, thank you for having me on.

I really appreciate you doing this for Governor Parson.

- So, looking back, how did you first meet Mike Parson?

- Well, you know, I was in private business, as you know, I'm a Ford dealer by trade, and Mike was a rep in the House.

And we had some issues with our franchise laws that we needed somebody to work on some legislation for us.

I came down to the Capitol as a businessman to a committee hearing and met this state representative from Polk County named Mike Parson.

And he was always known in the House and the Senate as the guy who knew how to kind of put deals together.

And we certainly needed somebody who knew how to navigate the system, understood business, understood how important small dealerships were to small communities.

And Mike Parson was the guy, and we hit it off right off the bat.

- So you ended up serving in the state Senate together.

Your time in the state Senate, you didn't always agree on everything, probably starting with who should lead the state Senate, right?

- Yeah, I mean, then-Senator Parson and I went in actually in the same day, same class.

Mike was really good at bringing people together and carried on the tradition that I knew him for, as in the House.

But unfortunately when it came to that leadership role, a different turn happened to Mike.

And I would tell you and he would say it was a turn at the time nobody understood, but it led to great things for his life in the future.

- I think it says a lot about, when I think of Governor Parson, to see a man in that position of power have that humility and the heart he had.

He came back to the state Senate after losing a leadership race and put his head down and really went to work.

And I watched maybe an adversarial relationship that could have, I mean political rivals that could have developed.

It became where people were pulling for him and wanted to see him succeed.

And I thought that was a real testament to him as a person as much as anything else.

- Well, we were a huge cheerleader for Mike after, you know, that kind issue happened with the leadership race.

- [Scott] It doesn't always work out that way.

- No, it doesn't.

But Mike didn't act that way.

Some people can be sore losers, as you know.

But you're right, Mike just decided to roll his sleeves up and continue to work and work back on relationships, ultimately deciding to run for Governor, that led him to decide to run for Lieutenant Governor.

And Claudia and I were all in for he and Teresa, And we had fundraisers for him, we campaigned for him.

He worked very hard, as you know he knows how to do.

And we were super happy to see him win Lieutenant Governor's race, not knowing what that would ultimately lead to.

- So ultimately he becomes Governor in a historically odd situation, frankly.

Tell me about him calling you to ask you, or what was the conversation like when he asked you to serve as his Lieutenant Governor?

- Well, it was crazy.

It was really humbling to be honest with you.

But, you know, so Mike as Lieutenant Governor, at the time, I was the floor leader.

We worked very closely together in session.

So in his time as Lieutenant Governor for the two sessions he served, he and I got to be even closer than we were before just because we had to work together to have the Senate function properly.

But when he called me that day and asked me to do that, that was incredible.

I thought he was joking, really, to tell you the truth.

I'm like, "Mike, we'll find somebody for you as Lieutenant Governor.

We'll find the best he or she that's out there."

And he said, "I really want it to be you, and I want you to bring your work gloves," 'cause he said, "I know you know how to work."

And that was his advice to me, and it was great.

Another thing that meant a lot to me, and this tells you that Governor Parson understands people, he knew my mother was very influential in my life.

And he said, "I want you to bring your mother to the swearing in."

And that was a big day for our family.

- That's awesome.

There is, if there's two commonalities between the two of you, it'll be a work ethic, and I always thought like, a very humble spirit.

You have an impression of people in these big offices, probably because when you meet 'em, a lot of 'em have an ego.

A lot of 'em, they're a big deal and they like you to know it.

That's never been the case with you and Mike Parson.

Those are two things I think are a real common bond between both of you.

- Well, we both had very humble roots, very humble beginnings, hardworking families.

His mom and dad, as you know, were sharecroppers.

My mother worked three jobs to raise her six kids by herself.

And those are things that I never forgot, and I know that's a work ethic and a level of humility that Mike Parson never forgot.

- Working alongside him in the Governor's office, you guys had one crisis after the other.

But I do think it's honest to say that you're leaving the state better than you found it in 2018.

- Yeah, I mean, nobody could have predicted what happened to Mike as he ascended to the Governor's office and the issues that came up for our state.

Everybody knows what those issues were.

There wasn't a book on a shelf that said, here's what previous Governors did to deal with the COVID crisis or whatever the issue was that Mike was facing, tornadoes, floods, you name it, civil unrest.

He did a really good job of, I always said he governs from his heart.

And sometimes it doesn't make everybody happy, but I know Mike Parson always made decisions on what he thought was best for Missouri from his heart.

And that meant a lot to me.

- What's the last question I would've for you is what should history know about Governor Mike Parson?

- I think history should know that you took a man that came from very basic roots and put him in a one of the offices in the land.

And he handled that with humility and dignity and love for the state, and never forgot his roots or his family or the people around him, including his staff who had some of the best staff I've ever worked with.

He never forgot how important all those people were in his life.

And he governed that way.

And I believe that that's something that's a rare quality today in politics.

- Mike Kehoe, congratulations on your win and thank you for your time.

- Yeah, you bet.

(upbeat music) - We're now joined by Governor Parson's three appointments to the Missouri Supreme Court, Judge Robin Ransom, Judge Kelly Broniec, and Judge Ginger Gooch.

Thank you all so much for making the time.

Judge Ransom, we'll start with you.

What was the process like to be selected to be a Missouri Supreme Court judge?

- Wow.

It was a lot.

And even though going in, you sort of know or you have the expectations of what it's going to be like, and then you get into the process and it's nothing like that.

And I don't know if people understand, like we travel across the state because the Supreme Court position is a statewide position.

And so you have to meet with the commissioners not only in the area where you are, but have to travel to Springfield, Marshfield, Kansas City, and then you also have interviews in St. Louis.

And I think there's seven total.

You interview with two commissioners that are all in the three appellate districts, and then you interview with the chief judge of the Supreme Court and then they pick their panel.

So you hear that you're on.

And it's like, now what?

Because you feel, you know, there's so much anxiety and there's so much work that goes into making the panel that you get on the panel, and now it's not a race of just trying to get to be one of three, you're trying to be the person.

And then you have to deal with all of the rumor mills, all of the advice that everybody wants to give.

You know, "Oh, you need to call this person, this person has, this is the person.

If you get this person, they can call the Governor and the job is yours."

Well, how many of those this-is-the-person's are there because I've gotten several names-- - Probably none, right?

- Right.

That you know, you need this person.

And so you're confident going in because if you're not confident, I don't think you apply.

But as the process goes on, that confidence can wane a bit, and you have to continue to tell yourself, "I am what I think I am.

And I'm qualified, and I want the job, and let the chips fall where they may."

- What was your interview like-- - The interview with the Governor, I was gonna say that was the easiest part.

Interviewing with Governor Parson, that was the easiest part because we didn't talk about anything legal.

We talked about our lives.

And I think that's where our connection really happened.

He had interviewed me previously with my appointment to the Appellate Court in 2019.

And that was the first instance, you know, you walk in and he just smiles.

And I'm sitting there thinking, "Who is this person?"

Because I guess my previous experiences of interviewing with governors, everybody's polite, everybody's nice, but he was genuine, I mean, just genuinely kind.

And all he wanted to talk about was my life.

And you know, it's like I've lived this life.

I don't find it all that exciting.

But to have him be genuinely interested.

And the only other person in the room I think was, I wanna say one person.

It was just the two of us.

And he never looked to be coached on what to say.

And he told me about his upbringing and about his life and how much being chosen to be Governor meant to him.

And I think we felt like a kindred spirit, because he never really thought this was going to be where he wound up.

This was not life, you know, a lifelong goal of him to be Governor.

And I've always shared with him, it was never my dream to be an appellate or a Supreme Court judge.

I just wanted to be a good person, earn a living, and have a nice life.

And I think that's where we had our connection.

But the kindness that he showed me in the interview, and then since then, my mom came when I was appointed to the Supreme Court, and he always asks, "How's your mom?

Like, your mom really made an impact."

And I'm thinking, "Her?

What'd she say that I didn't say?"

But he's just always been very, just very kind.

And I think for me, that meant a lot, because it is very stressful.

You know, and the genuine connection I think that we had, I really did not anticipate.

But I forgot that I was being interviewed, you know?

In talking to him-- - The old sheriff got you, huh?

(laughing) - He did, he did!

I just totally forgot that it was an interview.

And it just helped me to relax and to open up.

And so much of what he shared about his upbringing, I thought, "Boy, I kinda like this guy. "

And then, you know, I got the job.

So it was a difficult process to get to one of the three, but the interview with him definitely was the best part and the easiest part.

- Judge Broniec, tell me about your conversation.

You do go through all this stress and all the folks, and I've seen the, everybody knows the one guy and all that.

When you get in the room with Mike Parson, what was it like?

- Again, I can't stress just the genuineness and the kindness and just the commonality that he tries to achieve with the folks that he meets with.

And when my family came to the Governor's office for my appointment, he was just so welcoming and charming and just very kind.

When I was appointed to the Court of Appeals and through that interview process, it was the beginning of the COVID lockdowns.

And so the interview I had when I was on the panel for the Eastern District was held via Zoom at the time.

And so I didn't get to meet with him in person at that point.

And I missed that opportunity.

But I interviewed with his attorneys and was able to receive the phone call from him when he was announcing my pick to the Eastern District.

- I think you knew one of his attorneys who's kind of done pretty well for himself.

- [Kelly] Yes!

(laughing) - Andrew Bailey.

- Yes, that's right.

- You had a commonality with the Governor, though, that he told me after this election that you both served in local office.

- That's right.

- You both served in county office, and that's a commonality, the two of you, you do learn some things about folks when you serve 'em at that county level.

- Yes.

And I think both being from rural areas of the state, we both had a connection to law enforcement.

He had been the sheriff, I had been a prosecuting attorney.

My husband was in law enforcement.

And so I think we did share a lot of commonality in terms of our background.

But yet he's shown, and I feel like we've shown that, you know, people from rural areas of the state can still do great things and compete with the folks from the other parts of the state as well.

- Justice Gooch, you were the last appointment, and it being kind of a historic appointment, 'cause it did tip the balance, the majority of the court being women for the first time.

What was it like when you went through the process and actually sat in the room with Governor Parson?

- I mean, I feel like I had a very similar experience to what Judges Ransom and Broniec had talked about.

I mean, I just was struck by the Governor's kindness.

Just, you know, very, very kind.

And really I think just wanted to try to understand, you know, what's your background and why do you want to do this?

And I appreciated having the opportunity to talk with him about that.

And also when, you know, I came to the Governor's office for my press conference, I mean, very similar experience.

My 81-year-old dad was there and I mean, the Governor couldn't have been nicer to my son, husband and dad.

And just, what can we do to make them comfortable, and let my son sit in the Governor's chair.

I mean, you know, it was really an amazing experience for my whole family that they'll never forget.

And now when I see the Governor and you know, first thing he asks, "How's your family?

How are they doing?"

And you know, that's I think just, I feel like, not surprised to hear them say that, 'cause that was my experience too.

- You and the Governor have a commonality though, both being from southwest Missouri.

I mean, he's just up the road in Bolivar from you.

And he talked about that on my show.

He talked about how there should be balance of all these things, but also, you know, folks from southern Missouri, they can do a little lawyering too, right?

It was nice to see, as a person who's from southern Missouri, that folks put a little premium on that as well.

- Well, and I'm incredibly grateful that he put a premium on it.

And I know I wouldn't be here but for that.

And I mean, it's been a long, long time since we've had somebody from southwest Missouri on the court, so.

- We have a pretty distinguished history of people from southern Missouri serving in the judiciary.

- Yes, I mean, absolutely.

And so I'm glad that seemed to be a priority for him.

And I think, you know, to me, you maybe look at our backgrounds on paper, his and mine, and they don't look that similar.

But I feel like, you know, he is in my backyard in southwest Missouri.

And it's, you know, really gratifying to me personally that, you know, a cattle farmer from southwest Missouri with a high school education, I mean, that might not seem like the person who would make the court woman majority or appoint the first African American woman to the court, but he did.

And so I think, you know, that will be part of his legacy for sure.

And to me, it's a good reminder to not judge a book by its cover, because you know, what you see on paper about how someone may act or you would think they would act is not what happens always, so.

- Judge Ransom, when I spoke to the Governor, I'm not totally sure he knew you'd be the first African American woman.

I think he wanted to appoint you.

I think he found out a little bit later from someone that you'd be the first African American woman on the court.

It was one of those things he stressed to me, she was the best one.

It was an historic appointment.

When you serve, do you feel any special weight?

Because it is a historic path that you're treading.

- No.

You know, I've always said in interviews, I think when you look at me, you know that I'm Black.

That's not a shock.

So we can get past that and move on to other qualifications or other issues.

And I think that's the one thing that I really respected about him.

My race never came up in the conversation.

You know, I'm from north St. Louis.

I'm very proud to be, you know, African American.

I'm proud of being from the city of St. Louis and all of those things.

But those things don't define who I am.

And he saw through that.

Even, you know, again, with the rumor mill, that was one of the big things going like, oh, well, you know, he's really just trying to appoint a Black individual, you know, to the court.

Well, we had Judge Draper at the time who's still on the court.

Judge White had been the first African American appointed to the court.

So for me it's like, that barrier's broken.

You know, whether it's male, female, I'm totally over all of those things.

But that's something that we never talked about.

You know, we talked about religion, we talked about, we might've gotten into a little sports, we talked about the city.

Sheriff Vernon Betts or the former sheriff in St. Louis City, I think he and Governor Parson had some sort of connection, so we talked about that.

But it was really based on me as the individual, him as an individual, and just having common grounds, whether it was our religious base or wanting to do the best jobs that we both could for the citizens of Missouri.

You know, I have a very, in my background and growing up, we were raised very law and order.

And we talked about that, you know?

And I think those are things that really meant something to him.

And so no, race for me is just what it is.

And I'm very happy that I've never felt any extra pressure, I guess, to be one thing or another thing or to judge a case a different way.

I mean, I just feel like I'm one of seven.

And I like the other six people that I serve with.

And so no, it's not an issue.

And I'm glad that Governor Parson never made an issue.

- There is something, I think history does take note of being the first female majority court.

There's probably some perspectives and some life experiences that the court probably hasn't seen in the majority ever.

It is kind of a historic time to serve.

- It is.

And you know, we're excited about the majority.

But at the same time, you know, I won't speak for everybody, but I appreciated when Governor Parson announced his picks of myself and Judge Gooch, that he stressed that the candidates that he picked had to be well qualified for the job.

And so he stressed that he wasn't giving out handouts.

And so I think that that also stressed the importance of picking qualified people for the jobs, and that our experiences and qualifications spoke for themselves as well.

- I do think, though, it is heartening.

I have a daughter.

I think it is something nice to see, that not only can you serve in one or two spots, but it really is probably the most striking symbol of parity and equality.

And maybe the best part of that is it doesn't matter anymore, like you're saying.

But I do think if you're a woman in law school, it probably is a little inspiring and probably maybe makes you set your goals a little higher to see the four of you serving on the Supreme Court at the same time.

- Yeah, I mean, you know, I had the opportunity to clerk for Judge Ann Covington.

And so that, you know, she's been an amazing role model for me.

And I think it does make a difference-- - [Scott] What a legendary Missourian.

- You know, that somebody can serve in that role and do well.

But I also think just, you know, what Judges Ransom and Broniec have said about the Governor being most interested in, you know, qualified candidates and picking the right person for the job.

I mean, that was my sense too.

I think my appointment at the Southern District also made that court the first majority female.

And I can't tell you how many people said, you know, "You need to figure out something else, Ginger, because the Governor is never gonna pick two women back to back, and especially two women from southwest Missouri and Springfield.

I mean, that is not gonna happen."

And that's exactly what he did.

So, I mean, I think, you know, that was not his concern of trying to meet some sort of demographic ideal.

And in fact, similar to this court, in that court he picked three women back to back, Judge Growcock, Judge Borthwick, and then I was fortunate enough to be appointed.

So despite many people saying that was never gonna happen, and here I'm the third female appointment now at this court.

And so I'm just, I guess grateful that, you know, some sort of, you know, demographic I guess idea of, you know, this slot needs to look like this sort of person, I do not feel like that's how he made these appointments.

And so I'm glad I had a chance.

- Judge Ransom, what should history know about Governor Mike Parson?

- He's loyal to the citizens of this state.

You know, I watched him, I guess his wife, our First Lady is part of the JAG program.

You know, that's one of her babies where you talk to the high school kids and you inspire them to, you know, reach for the stars.

And a few weeks ago they had a lot of those kids over at the Capitol, you know, for a big program.

And this is her baby.

But Judge Parson, or, Judge, I'm doing the same thing.

Governor Parson had an opportunity to just sort of warm up the crowd.

And he went through his background.

And the one thing he told those kids is, "You can be anything you wanna be.

You can do anything you wanna do because Missouri is a great state."

And he always talks about Missouri and how great this state is and how full of opportunities this state is if you just accept hands that are out there to help.

And the genuine way he was able to connect to those teenagers, you know, really made me feel like, yes!

Because that's just something that's very close to my heart is, you know, being a mentor.

And I always tell people how proud I am of the state, and I think people expect me to say that.

But as the Governor, he lives it, he breathes it.

And he's very loyal to all of us as citizens.

And I think he's done a great job showing that not only in, you know, his appointments, but he's taken some hits, you know, on some very controversial, difficult decisions he's had to make.

But he stands strong in that because he believes his decisions are the best decisions.

Might not be right, but he's making the best decisions that he can.

And I think that that's something I know for me, being in this position means a lot.

Because I always tell people, "I don't know if we're right."

You know, history of course always tells us one thing or another, but we're all doing the best that we can for the citizens.

And that's the one thing, his loyalty to us and his desire to see the best for this state has always really impressed me.

- Judge Broniec, I think part of his legacy is he's appointed some 40% of the Missouri judges serving right now.

What do you think history should know about Governor Parson?

- Yeah, I think that that's one thing out of all the things he's known for statewide, I would guess that the public isn't aware of the effect that he has had on the judiciary and the lasting effect that he will have on the state's judiciary.

Because I think by the time he leaves office, it'll be close to 50% of the judiciary that he has appointed.

And so I think that while those of us in that third branch of government are aware of that, I'm not sure that the general public is aware of the extent of his fingerprints will be on the judiciary for some time.

- Judge Gooch, what should history know about Governor Parson?

- I mean, I do think the impact on the judiciary will be huge.

And I've, you know, heard him say multiple times publicly that, you know, he realizes what he is doing.

He's not going to be around to see the effects of this, that he's doing it, you know, for his grandchildren.

And so I do feel like that's, you know, has motivated his decisions.

And that, you know, I think people should appreciate somebody who, you know, is not so much focused on himself, but the impact on future generations.

- [Scott] Your Honors, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- We'll be right back with former state representative Caleb Jones, who knows Governor Parson probably better than anyone on this documentary.

(upbeat music) Now joined by somebody who's probably known the Governor as long as anybody we're gonna talk to, Former Representative Caleb Jones.

Thank you for making the time.

- Thanks for having me, Scott.

I appreciate it.

- Do you even remember the first time you met Mike Parson?

- Believe it or not, I don't.

- I figured not!

- You know, he's one of those folks that in my mind I grew up with.

Both his dad or him, Mike and my father were sheriffs together.

So he was one of those guys that was really like an uncle to me my entire life.

- So tell folks about knowing Mike Parson.

I mean, I met Mike Parson as a state representative.

You met Mike Parson as probably just your dad's buddy, right?

Tell folks about him.

- You know, that's probably the most endearing trait of Mike Parson is what you see is what you get.

I can tell you he hasn't changed in the 30 plus years, maybe even 40 plus years that I've known him.

Really somebody with strong character, sometimes strong opinions, but also somebody that does the right thing no matter what.

- So you went on then to serve in the General Assembly at the same time he was serving.

That had to be kind of cool, right?

- Yeah.

You know, it was really neat because my father served before me as state rep, and he and Mike actually were sheriffs together, then they were state representatives together.

So I got to kind of watch from the periphery, Mike, as he was a state rep, and then when he became a state senator, I started my career as a state representative.

So it was kind of a mix between friendship, mentorship, and a little bit of shenanigans too.

- (laughing) So when he became Governor of Missouri, you know, people think back on that time.

You know a little bit about how hectic that office can be in a normal time, but I mean, it was a little helter-skelter there in July.

You probably could understand more of the success they've had and how tough those first few months were.

I mean, what he came into was something, he didn't have an administration set up.

And people forget about that because now he's won reelection and all that.

But at the time, it was a pretty crazy time.

- You know, he walked into a situation with very few staff staying around, really having no clear handle on what was going on.

But I think he probably got a lot of his experience in solving this whenever he was sheriff, dealing with chaotic situations.

And really the role of law enforcement I think at that time really was the same role as the Governor, to be a steady hand to bring about reason and doing the right thing.

And that calming force during especially those first two or three months I think made sure that our state was successful and continues to be successful.

- I don't think it's a coincidence you end up running one of the most important groups in the state, the Coop Association.

Mike Parson talks about infrastructure and workforce development every time you talk to him.

Your guys actually lay some of the infrastructure.

- Yeah, we sure do.

You know, the Governor, Governor Parson's been a strong advocate for infrastructure.

And when you think of infrastructure, everyone thinks of roads and bridges, which he's been very involved in and supportive of that.

But really also, all those utilities that go to your house, like broadband.

Governor Parson's has been a leader in making sure that rural Missouri actually gets access to high speed fiber internet to their homes.

And I think he's changed really the outlook for rural Missouri, not just in getting access to the same resources as folks in the city, but also the jobs that he's been able to create and been able to keep in Missouri because of this infrastructure that he supported.

- It makes a difference, I assume, in a job like yours when you're talking to a guy from rural Missouri, a guy that understands how important it is, who's seen kids go off to college and never come back home, that broadband gives them the chance to do that.

It's gotta be easy to talk to a person who, you don't have to explain the importance of it and the vitals of it to rural Missouri.

- You know, we've been really lucky to have the Governor come speak at a lot of Rural Electric Cooperative events.

And I think our president summed it up the best whenever he introduces him as, "Welcome, one of us."

Mike Parsons really embodies all of us as rural Missouri, and doesn't just talk about it and know it, he lives it.

- Caleb, you are one of the people that perhaps probably has a better feel for the people of this state than anybody I've ever known.

What do you think history should know about Governor Mike Parson?

- I think a couple things.

One, Mike Parson did the right thing when I think a lot of the people around the country and the world all over were doing things emotionally.

He stayed focused on doing what's best for Missourians.

And I think the second thing that everyone should know is behind that good country boy from Polk County is a pretty smart guy.

- I love to watch him slow play people.

It's one of my favorite things.

There is a wisdom, I think, about Mike Parson, and I think it does very well for him, very well for the state.

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, his experiences that he brought to the Governor's Mansion I think is unlike any other Governors.

And it's really allowed him to do things that no other Governor's been able to do.

- Caleb, thank you so much for the time.

We appreciate it.

- Appreciate it, thank you.

(upbeat music) - We are now joined by the person that probably knows Mike Parson as well as anybody you're gonna hear from this evening, his Chief of Staff, Aaron Willard.

Aaron, thank you, I know you don't do these and I'm so grateful you're here today.

- Thanks, Scott.

Really, really appreciate being here.

And obviously, you're right.

You know, the Governor and I kind of joke next to our spouses, we probably spent more time together over the last six and a half years than anybody else, so.

- So let's start from the beginning.

You knew Mike Parson.

But what was it like when he sat down and talked to you about maybe being the chief of staff to the Governor of the state of Missouri?

- You know, which is actually kind of amazing is I never really sat down with him and asked to be his chief of staff.

It was, I had been out in DC and I had come back, we had known each other from his time in the legislature.

And we knew that there was this kind of tenuous situation going on in the state.

And he had said, "Look, I don't know if anything is gonna happen, but I wanna be prepared.

I don't want to walk in on day one and not have some kind of a plan on how I'm gonna start, you know, being able to serve the people of Missouri."

And so just simply outta that, I said, "Look, I'm happy to sign up.

I'll help you.

Let me start working on a plan."

And that's really how it all started.

I mean, it was his love and his, you know, kind of focus on wanting to be ready for that job, and my love for the state, you know, to just say, "Look, this is important."

This isn't about a title or anything like that.

It's just, we wanted to be able to work together to really focus on what could we do, if something's gonna happen, to be ready to go into service.

And that's ultimately, you know, what happened.

I still remember getting a phone call from him.

I was at home and he said, "Hey, I really like you.

I need you down in Jeff City."

And I had said, "Well, what day?"

And he said, "No, I need you now, Aaron."

And so that was kind of the start of it.

And we got together, I had created a binder for him.

(both chuckling) And it literally kind of became the playbook.

- So today he's known as the Governor, he's got this tremendous track record of success.

But take folks back to July of 2018.

I mean, it was political issues, state issues.

The state was trying to heal.

You guys came in, and the last folks have been focusing on some other things.

Take folks into that hectic time.

It's so easy to forget because of the success of the administration, that was a crazy time in July of '18.

- Yeah, it really was.

And again, I mean, credit to the Governor, you know, by trade I'm a policy guy.

I'm kind of a nerd.

You know, I love getting into some of the details on stuff.

And he just asked me, that was honestly the, I will tell him, the most gracious question that honored me the most that he just said was, "What do you think?

How would you do this?"

And we just sat down, and you know, you pegged it.

I mean, there was a lot of crazy things kind of going on.

It was really tumultuous.

There was a lot of tension.

People didn't know.

They didn't know, "Hey, how's this new Governor gonna be?"

You had communities that were saying, "Hey, how is he gonna lead?

How's he gonna serve?"

And we had this kind of hypothesis that I was like, look, I really believe, you know, no offense to previous administrations, but we had this very candid conversation that said, politicians are always really good about making promises.

And they always say, "Well, this is gonna be a priority and that's gonna be a priority, and this is a priority."

And I told him, the reality is if everything is a priority, nothing is going to be a priority.

So I think because people are really concerned about what's going on, you need to be very clear in what these priorities are.

And we're gonna focus on things that everybody understands and everybody cares about.

Regardless if you're coming from urban St. Louis or the core in Kansas City, or if you're going out to Rich Hill, Missouri, or you're down in Poplar Bluff, you know, you want to know what those priorities are from your leader.

And so that's why we focused on infrastructure and workforce development, so that everybody would kind of understand, look, these are things that we can all rally around.

They're things that are not only gonna be immediate needs, but they're also gonna be a long-term investment for the state.

And so that initial time when we were coming in, to me, it was really important that he set the tone and talk about what his priorities were gonna be.

And then we stayed consistent with him.

And, you know, I mean, you've known the Governor a long time too.

I mean, he's unbelievably sincere and genuine.

And to me, that was always one of his biggest selling points is that sincerity and the genuineness of who he is shines through every single time you meet him.

And so it was important for him to get out there, I thought, and meet people, for them to see him, and then to talk about those simple priorities that I think everybody could rally around.

- So at the time, you had some folks who, a little more of the right wing of the party that was always gonna be, they may have had sour grapes about a person they supported.

And then you had just regular Missourians gaining the credibility with regular Missourians.

You had to thread some needles there that was pretty tight past the wall.

- Yeah, and you know, my personal take on some of that is sometimes, you know, people get kind of emotionally attached to something with some of the rhetoric.

But the reality is, you know, Mike Parson's a really conservative guy.

And even that, but, you know, just doesn't always lead with that rhetoric, doesn't always lead with that narrative.

You know, he's not somebody who was really gonna try to chase headlines.

He really just wanted to get the job done.

He really wanted to deliver results.

And so, yeah, he did some really incredible, you know, things from a conservative standpoint.

We cut taxes five times, you know, have passed several of the bills, you know, at the time, I mean, kind of the toughest abortion laws that we had.

From a fiscal standpoint, I mean, we paid down, you know, our state debt.

We didn't even have a House Bill 1 this last time.

I mean, that's unprecedented!

Mike Parson, the guy who they thought was, "Well, I don't know how conservative he is."

We did these things.

And we did it, you know, in a way that I think he's really proud of, that we laid the foundation for the future.

And so, again, you know, sometimes that's unfortunately, you know, politics get in the way.

But he was always gonna be somebody that was just gonna say, "Look, I'm gonna focus more on the results than I am the headlines."

And that's another reason why, you know, I love him.

- So the amount of statewide appointments you made is historic.

How do you start off finding the Attorney General, the State Treasurer?

I mean, and it's gotta feel good to have 'em all confirmed by the voters and be reelected and promoted.

- Yeah, it's a pretty, I think that's a legacy, honestly, for the Governor that will live on is really his kind of choice and being able to review people that he thought were gonna do a fantastic job for the state.

And I think that that was verified in the election results in all those people kind of winning reelection.

So I think you're right.

You know, it never really was something at the time that we ever, I would say, you know, felt overwhelmed with.

It was just, we had so many things kind of going on.

It was, look, this is the responsibility and we have to take it.

And for the Governor it was about, you know, where are those personal relationships?

Does this person, how do they address like, solving problems?

How do they think through things?

How do they work with other people?

You know, that was also, some of those things were issues that when we came into office, we knew that some of those problems existed.

He really liked to be able to get along, you know, with other members of the party, even if we don't get along all the time.

Or even with Democrats, you know, to be able to have that professional relationship where if there's a problem, you can pick up the phone, you can try to talk through it, understand we're not gonna agree on everything.

But still, you know, gonna go out there and advocate for what you believe.

And I think for him, that's really what he looked for.

And a lot of those people were those that were very passionate, you know, about what they believe.

And I think all of those people are, you know, really conservative.

We've got a lot of really conservative members out there.

But they're also people that are very practical, that are very approachable, that, may not always agree with them, but they're pretty good at listening, and which-- - Feels like an Andrew Bailey really symbolizes a lot of that, what you're talking about.

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, and Vivek Malek and Eric Schmitt.

You know, I mean, these are people that he's known for a while, that he had that experience with them, that knew that they could like, bridge different groups together to really kind of focus on issues.

And so I think that was kinda the common theme, is just being able to find leaders who, yeah, are absolutely conservative, but at the same time they really want to be able to and they're not afraid to have those conversations and figure out what they can work on together, so.

- So take me into this.

On election night, you had to feel good.

If I'm you, I would've totally, the German in me would've felt great.

Andrew Bailey takes on all of Washington and New York City, stomps a mud hole in 'em.

And Mike Kehoe, the person you all selected for Lieutenant Governor, the person you all endorsed was elected Governor on a pretty substantial margin.

August, you had to feel good.

- Oh, absolutely.

I mean, it was, like I said, for us, all the things, we're really proud of a lot of the accomplishments that we've had while we've been in office.

But one of the really the big legacy pieces to me is having a hand in who some of that next generational leadership for our state's gonna be.

And I think he's just, I know the Governor's so proud of them.

He's proud of a lot of the work that they've already done.

And I know he is really excited about the future that they're gonna carve for the state.

- Let's talk about COVID.

I would see the people after they met with you, I would talk to the folks.

And from the accounts I had of these meetings, you and the Governor had hospital leaders saying, "Oh my God, you've gotta shut the state down or everyone's gonna die."

And you had business leaders saying, "Oh my God, if you don't leave us alone, everyone's gonna starve to death."

I think looking back, everybody has their own view of COVID, but in the moment and the uncertainty, what was that like?

- Oh, you know, I would never wish that upon anyone to have to deal with it again.

I mean, everything was completely untested.

It was very new.

But at the same time, and you know, like you pointed out, we knew we weren't always gonna agree with people, but again, it was really important to be able to get their feedback, to understand what some of their concerns were.

And so, yeah, we were having a lot of phone calls, a lot of people that felt really passionate about, you know, one course of action we should take, other groups that would say complete opposite.

But it was really important, we spent a lot of time trying to get a lot of that feedback.

Because it was really important to us to make sure, you know, the decisions that we did make, that we felt like that they struck a really good balance on being able to maintain safety, but at the same time not come in with a heavy handed government.

And that was really, for us, you know, how we focused on trying to fine-tune our approach was absolutely wanted to be able to maintain safety.

But at the same time we really felt like, you know, we didn't wanna come out with a heavy handed government and just completely, you know, force kind of actions on people that they weren't comfortable with.

So that they still had kind of their own independence to take their own personal responsibility.

- The women you've appointed, it felt to me like, talking to Mike Parson, he was not appointing women for some sort of silly Facebook post gimmick.

But when you look at the scoreboard, you've appointed a lot of women to jobs, including the majority of the Supreme Court being women for the first time ever.

It does feel like Mike Parson has had a tendency to appoint women to big jobs at a higher rate than other Governors have in the past.

- Yeah, I appreciate you saying that, because it really is, I mean, for him, and it was neat to work with somebody who approached issues like that.

You know, it was always about the merit.

It was always about, "Look, can they do the job?

How are they gonna think about solving these issues?

How do they process decisions?"

And we're just really fortunate that we had some unbelievably talented and incredible women in the state of Missouri that wanted to do some of these leadership roles.

And so, you know, you'd mentioned the Supreme Court, we're really proud of that.

We've got an unbelievably bright set of women that are the majority now in the court.

We're so proud of them and the job that they're gonna do.

But then even, you know, our own cabinet.

You know what I mean?

We had a number of our cabinet, I think, you know, at one point at least was a majority female.

Just incredible female leaders.

And I think that for the Governor, you know, it was about getting that job done.

But there's also a part of him, you know, as a father, as a grandfather, it was really, I think, exciting to be able to show other women that want to get involved in public service, you can do this at a high level.

There are all sorts of opportunities available to you at the highest levels in the state for women.

And I think that that sends a great message again for kinda the future.

And, you know, and what may come, I mean, right now Missouri doesn't have, you know, we've never had a female Governor.

But I hope, you know, in the near future, and I think Mike Parson would absolutely be one of the biggest supporters of that, of having our first female Governor.

And I think that'd be pretty neat.

And maybe it'll be somebody that served in our administration, who knows?

- Aaron, last question.

What should history know from your firsthand, first row seat about Governor Mike Parson?

- Wow.

You know, Mike Parson to me is somebody who absolutely never forgot who he was.

And he came in on the first day of office with a set of values, with a set of priorities.

And it was always about public service.

And it was about really trying to get things done for the people of Missouri.

And, you know, we spent six and a half years doing that every day.

You know, not taking days off.

I mean, it was really diligently, you know, focused on doing that job for the people in Missouri.

And I think that he brought that humility every day.

But at the same time, you know, we really, really tried to push the envelope in thinking about big, bold ideas that we could get done.

And I think it ended up being a great recipe for success.

'Cause he, again, never forgot kind of who he was, but also, you know, had the courage to really think big and think bold about some of the challenges that I think we're facing as a state and some of the things we were able to get done.

And so I hope that as history looks back, there'll be a number of projects and things like that that will maybe have his name on 'em or that people will remember because they were such a huge infrastructure projects.

But at the same time, remember that the person behind them was somebody that you would want to, you know, call a friend and a neighbor.

And that's exactly who Mike Parson is, you know what I mean?

You know, through and through, he was that farmer, he was the sheriff, he was the small business owner.

And he brought that experience to the job every single day when he was trying to make decisions for the people of Missouri.

- Aaron Willard, thank you so much for your time and thank you so much for your years serving the state of Missouri.

- Thanks, Scott.

Thanks for having me.

(upbeat music) - Now we welcome in Former Senator Tom Dempsey, the pro temp of the Senate who served with Governor Parson.

Tell me the first time you met Mike Parson.

- Well, that would be when Mike got elected to the House way back in 2002.

And he was part of a very large freshman class, newly in the majority.

And yeah, just got an opportunity to meet at that time someone who was a former sheriff who'd served in Bolivar.

And, you know, would come to know him over the years as a great friend.

- It was always, I thought, a commonality with you and the Governor in your approach to government.

It was never arrogant, it was never caustic, it was never attacking.

It was always about, it felt like, when you were in the House leadership and Senate leadership, it was about accomplishment.

It was about accomplishing things for whatever vision you had for the state of Missouri.

I always felt like that's a bond you and Governor Parson had.

- Yeah, Mike is a very genuine person and someone you can count on.

And I think his life experience, you know, lended itself to him being a strong leader for Missouri.

- So one of the most interesting parts I think of his career is he runs for the state Senate and is elected in 2010, serves for a couple years, then he runs to be floor leader, who would've been your floor leader when you were pro temp.

He lost that race to Ron Richard.

And a lot of times, I think one of my political mentors, Kevin Engler, I think he had a hard time getting over that.

Mike Parson came back with a different attitude.

And I watched as time went on, even the folks that ran against him were pulling for him.

And he really turned what could, in I think a lot of times, for most people would've been a very almost toxic situation.

And before long it looked like there was this team, you know, that wanted to see him be successful.

- Yeah, I supported Mike early on for that leadership position.

You know, certainly before Ron announced his intention and was committed to Mike for that race.

It didn't work out.

But yeah, it wasn't the end, as you can tell.

You know, he was able to move on.

He had a positive attitude.

And he was, you know, instrumental to me being successful as Senate President.

You know, I put him in a key committee chairmanship that was really important to all the members of the chamber procedurally.

And, you know, it really takes being the right person, the right place and the right time for success in political office.

And, you know, Mike's character along with, you know, meeting those other three really was a jumping off point for him.

And how he handled that loss.

You know, and then if you look, how he treated-- - It took a lot of grit.

- Yeah, how he treated everyone after that.

You know, some of the people that were on the other side of that vote, you know, he continued to call them friends and work constructively with them for the betterment of Missouri.

- We've seen in the past when there's a leadership race, when there's just six years of bad blood, I think it's very telling about Mike Parson, I think you could predict some of his success as Governor stemming from the way he handled that situation.

- Yeah, I agree completely.

Yeah, it's now a footnote in a stellar career.

- So tell folks about, you leave the Senate and you see him be elected Governor.

You have perhaps, better than most, you're still involved in the process, but you knew him as a House member, you served with him in the Senate.

What has been your takeaway on his time as Governor?

Are you surprised by the success?

- No, no.

And I have seen kind of in my 25 years following the state, you know, people with different skill sets.

And I think that, you know, Mike didn't have an easy road into the Governor's Mansion, though some may say he certainly experienced some good fortune.

- Sure.

I think Peter Kinder would say that.

- (chuckling) Right.

Yeah, timing is everything.

But, you know, I would look at him, there are times when an ordinary Governor can be successful or do the job in ordinary times.

But in extraordinary times, like we went through with the pandemic, you need someone extraordinary.

And Mike met the moment in how he led the state during a time that, you know, my father never experienced, you know, in decades.

When they're comparing the pandemic to the Spanish Flu, you know, you're going back to 1918 in terms of what we had to deal with, the country, and then what our, you know, various leaders including our Governor of the state of Missouri, and his stewardship.

Missouri is well positioned, and that is for his leadership.

- Senator Dempsey, thank you so much for making the time.

We appreciate it.

- Oh, happy to be here and speak in favor or in support of my good friend.

- We'll be right back with State Treasurer Vivek Malek after this.

(upbeat music) We're now joined by one of the folks Governor Parson appointed to statewide office, Vivek Malek.

Thank you so much for making the time.

- Thank you, Scott.

- So tell me, how did you come to meet Mike Parson?

- It was 2014 when I met Governor Parson.

He was Senator Mike Parson then and was running for his second term.

That was the time when I met him, and it was an instant bonding with him and Teresa and became good friends.

So, just tell you briefly, that was my first introduction to Mike Parson.

- That's awesome.

And as time went on, I know the Governor's told me he got to know you better and more.

But tell me about when there was this opening to be State Treasurer, several people applied.

What was it like going through an interview process and pursuing that appointment from the Governor?

- I was told that I was probably one of the nine candidates who had applied.

And one of my friends in Jeff City when I applied told me, "Forget about it, you have 0.5% chance of getting that."

And being a positive person I am, I said, "Well, that's still a chance."

- You kind of went "Dumb and Dumber" on it.

You went Jim Carrey, "So you're saying there's a chance!"

I love it.

- There's a chance.

And after three weeks from the interview, I had a interview which was scheduled only for 20 minutes, but went on for about 45, 50 minutes.

And I felt very good coming out of the interview.

So after three weeks from the interview, I got a call saying that I'm among the top three finalists.

So I called my buddy in Jeff City and told him that, "Hey, that 0.05% chance is now a 33% chance."

(Scott laughing) So things started getting a little serious, and we started getting some support around me to have some letters written to the Governor, people calling him.

And the rest is history.

I got a call from Mike on December the 17th.

I remember that I was coming back from a commencement ceremony at SMU where I was serving on the Board of Regents.

And I had crossed Pevely coming back home and I got a call from Mike and I thought, "Well, he's gonna call and he was gonna say you didn't make the cut."

And he said, "You know what?

Get your ass up to Jeff City on Monday and we are going to announce you on Tuesday, and meet with my staff and they'll brief you on everything."

And I was like, dumbfounded.

I didn't have a word to say.

It was like a silence of five to seven seconds.

And he said, "Are you not gonna thank me?"

And I said, "Governor, can I call you back?"

And he said, "No, I'm in Branson with my family."

And I did not know what to say at that time.

And so I tried calling him, he didn't pick up.

So the only time I thanked him was Monday when I saw him after the weekend.

- (laughing) That's a great story.

Did you call back that insider and say, "Well, that 0.5% is now a 100% chance."

- [Vivek] Yes, yes, absolutely!

- There is something, though, you talked about commonalities.

You said somebody thought you had a 0.5% chance to get to be State Treasurer.

I think a lot of folks would've give Mike Parson a 0.5% chance to be Governor at different times in his life.

There is some value in folks, maybe you're underestimated, but that's not the worst thing in the world.

- Absolutely.

And I think Mike realized the potential.

He knew his potential and after he met me and we knew each other very well, he knew my potential when I was appointed to the Board of Regents at SMU.

And we were doing things that were being noticed in Jeff City.

So I think he realized that potential.

And I think, I hope that I have served to that expectation in the last two years in the position of Treasurer.

- You're part of some illustrious company, not just Scott Fitzpatrick, Andrew Bailey, yourself, but Eric Schmitt was a statewide appointee of Mike Parson's, now a United States Senator.

Mike Kehoe was a statewide appointee.

All of you were reelected.

Mike Kehoe is now the Governor-Elect.

There is kind of a neat kinship amongst you as folks that this particular Governor placed in high office, all of you being elected to those terms.

It's kind of a neat club to be in.

- I consider more of a brotherhood that we have rather than just a club.

I think we share those commonalities, we share the understanding of how things should work and need to work.

And I think that the cooperation, the camaraderie is wonderful.

- So talk about the leadership style you've seen Mike Parson have working with him.

What are some of the things that you maybe regard the most and wanna try to emulate going forward that you've picked up from the Governor?

- I think Mike has a knack for picking the right things.

And I think he would listen to everybody and then make a decision what he thinks is right.

And most of the time he would come on top of it correctly.

And that's very rare quality that you will find in people.

And I really appreciate him for doing that, to have all the perspective from different people, but then not relying on the staff or the bureaucrats to make a decision, but making your own decision, thinking for what is best for Missourians.

- You were a historic appointment, being the first person of color serving in a statewide office.

What all is that, I think that it says a good thing about the state that that appointment came from a rural Missouri farmer.

Going forward, do you feel any special, like folks are watching you a little bit more because of that distinction?

That they wanna see you succeed or they wanna, it is, when you are a historic appointment, I think by definition you do get scrutinized or praised or whatever more.

How does that strike you?

- I still believe in the words of great Martin Luther King, Reverend Martin Luther King, that you should be judged by your character, not by the color of your skin.

And the things I have done, keeping in mind what is best for Missourians and how we can make the lives better for all Missourians in the state, and that has been my goal.

So as I came into the office, I structured my policies around three P's, protecting Missourians taxpayers' dollars, providing opportunities through the office, and promoting the promise of America, which I believe I'm a living example of that American dream, that that is not dead, that it's still alive and well.

And everybody who can get a good education, work hard, and be dedicated and have faith, I think you can make it whatever you want to be.

So those are the key things, and I will stick to them during my incoming years in the Treasurer's office to make sure that we stick to the basic principles.

- The last question is, what should history know about Governor Mike Parson?

- I think he is one of, Mike would be known as a person who was an unknown just like me, but then rose to the occasions when things became difficult for the state, whether it was COVID, whether it was different disasters in the state, drought, flood.

And he rose to the occasions to make sure that Missourians get the help that they need.

And the decisions that he took were historic.

He was a very inclusive Governor.

He understood where the state needs to be.

And took every challenge head on rather than coming to anything that, what we saw from most of the states during that time.

And has taken the state much, much forward than any other, you know, Governor in the past history.

And I think his last six years will leave a legacy which new generation leaders will look up to what a leader needs to be like.

- Treasure Malek, thank you so much for the time.

- Thank you very much.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back.

We are now joined one of the Governor's closest confidants during his time in office, Kelli Jones.

Kelli, thank you so much for joining us.

- You're welcome, Scott.

Thank you for having me.

- So your career, did you know Mike Parson prior to coming to work there?

How did you come to work for the Governor?

- I did not.

I was in education for about 17 years and then all my daughters were grown.

I had one left with one year left in high school, and I decided, "You know what, I'm gonna take this opportunity just to see what's out there."

I was gonna go practice what I've been teaching for 17 years.

So I put my resumes out all over and I got a call from the Lieutenant Governor Mike Parson's office.

And they asked me if I'd come in for an interview, and I did.

And anyway, at that time, Governor laughs now, he says he at that time didn't wanna hire me.

He thought I was way too overqualified for what he was looking for.

So he chuckles about that.

But at the end of the day, he did hire me.

So I was his communication director for him when he was Lieutenant Governor.

Was there, you know, and all the rumors were flowing about our former Governor, and we knew things were probably gonna happen, but we didn't know.

And I was there for probably, I think maybe about three to four months and got the call.

And I was sitting at my desk, I'll never forget it 'cause I mean, you just are on edge all the time.

It was almost like a soap opera to me.

But it was just something new every day, people coming in-- - Or "Springer".

- Yes.

And he had gone home and I was in the office and my phone rings, and it's Lieutenant Governor Mike Parson on the other end.

And he says, he calls me teach.

He said, "Teach, you got your pretty dress on?"

And I go, "Well, I do."

'Cause I've been known to always have a suit on and look professional.

So I said, "You bet I do."

I go, "Why?"

He said, "Well, I'm coming up to Jefferson City because I'm gonna be the next Governor."

And I'm like, "Okay."

Well, I'll never forget at that moment, probably what stands out to me more than anything is the media.

I mean, just, you know, when you're the Lieutenant Governor, oftentimes you're looking to get noticed.

- Yeah, you gotta work at it.

- You do.

And I mean, media just rushed.

They had gotten wind that, news had been out, he was coming up, and they obviously all wanted him first.

And you know, when you're in the Lieutenant Governor's office, and even at that time, you know, the First Lady didn't have a lot of experience with the media.

They all wanted her.

So we had, I remember bringing him through the back and brought him up there and kind of tried to get him prepped for what that day looked like.

But that day was just, you know, we look back now, and Governor and I, we talk about it.

And you know, I feel like we have been together for many, many, many years because we have that-- - You've lived a lot of years in seven or eight.

- Oh, we have.

But we just have such a great relationship.

But we both are very faith-based people.

And we look back and we think, you know, that the good Lord might have put us together at that time because we had no idea what we were gonna experience once that announcement that he was gonna be the next Governor.

So from then on, history was made.

- Your relationship and well, I guess your status, I mean, you were a communications director, but you've become far much more than that.

The time I've observed you go, communications are probably still in your bailiwick, but you've become much more of a senior advisor to the Governor over time.

What was that relationship growing and growing your portfolio like?

- Well, I think he always knew that one thing he never had was I would never compromise with my loyalty to him.

I've got the utmost respect for Governor Parson, for who he is and what he does and how he thinks.

And as a communication director, obviously that piece becomes very important because he is who I'm representing.

But he always knew that, number one, I was gonna be loyal to him.

And he always knew I was always gonna look out for the best interest of him and the people of this state.

And I always did.

I didn't care, you know, politics plays in it, decisions being made, I always had Governor Parson as my number one priority when advising him.

So yes, that relationship did develop into that.

And he did come to my office, you know, many, many times just seeking advice, talking through things, just bouncing ideas off.

So that relationship did develop into more of a senior advisory role.

And then eventually I was the deputy chief of staff, so.

- Take us into COVID.

I know that, to me, it was truly a scenario where everything you did, somebody had an argument that they liked it, they didn't like it.

I would talk to people after they would go meet the Governor and it would be like, the healthcare was, "Oh, everyone's gonna die if you don't shut this thing down."

And the business people, like, "Well, everybody's gonna go broke if you don't leave people alone."

Historically challenging time.

- Yeah.

You know, it is one of the most challenging, intense, you turn into a different person after this COVID.

But, you know, there are many, many things.

We laughed, we cried.

We worked for, oh gosh, probably 45 days straight.

We didn't go home.

And fortunately, you know, Aaron Willard and the Governor and I and most of our team were all on the same page.

You know, we knew we had a state to run.

And then we knew eventually he was gonna have a campaign to run because he wanted to be, you know, elected into this position for another four years.

So we had so many things going on.

But the bottom line is we knew we had to make decision that impacted the vast majority of our state.

And we knew that we had to keep politics out of it as much as we could, because people's lives were at stake.

People's, not just their health lives, but their wellbeing, their financial lives at stake.

So there's just so many things.

But it was one of the most, I grew professionally.

You know, I did things I never thought I would be able to do on the comms front, on the public relations front, on healthcare front, probably what I saw most with state government.

And you know, when we first came into office, our goal was to create these relationships across all 16, now 17 agencies, because they were very siloed.

And we did.

I started, you know, communication meetings once a week with all the directors.

We had deputy director meetings.

And we did that just because we thought that was the right thing to do.

But in the end, when COVID hit, those relationships became invaluable.

I mean, we had people from agriculture doing stuff with health.

We had people in our office distributing vaccines.

I mean, things that we didn't think we could ever, ever do.

Probably one of my memories I'll never forget, and the Governor and I were both on the same page.

You know, we were very cautious, but we were very much about local control.

We were very much, you know, not scared.

We knew we had to take the challenge on and be there for the Missouri people.

But I'll never forget, we were going hard.

We were running hard, you know, we were tired, we didn't see our families.

And we were also trying to get him elected.

And I'm over in my office, and I could tell as we were traveling quite a little bit, I could tell the First Lady wasn't feeling very well.

But I could also, I knew we were tired.

So I'm over at the office and I get this call from the Governor and he said, "I need you to get Aaron and I need you over at the mansion third floor immediately."

So I knew there was a problem.

I thought, "We're in trouble."

And so we hustle over there as quickly as we can.

And the First Lady had just been diagnosed with COVID.

And we knew that publicly it was gonna be a big deal.

And then at the same time, Governor Parson's test was getting ready to come back, and his came back positive.

So, you know, immediately we're worried because it was still early.

You know, they're in their mid 60s, we're worried about their health.

Fortunately, neither one of 'em were very sick.

But we also had the Missouri Media Broadcast Association downstairs in the mansion.

So we had to address that.

But I remember, you know, I told the Governor and Aaron, like, "You've gotta stay here.

You cannot leave the mansion.

Because we need Missouri to know that you are okay, we are still running the state, and we're gonna get through this."

And I remember we wanted to do a video and do all these things.

And the First Lady didn't feel well and was getting irritated at all of us, and I'll never forget it.

So I'm thinking all of a sudden, I think, "Where's the First Lady?"

Well, she grabbed her security detail and she got the heck outta here and she headed on back to Bolivar.

(Scott laughing) So it was, you know, we just had a lot of different things going on.

But one of the most, I look back in history, I think we did a lot of things right.

You know, you learn a lot.

There might be a couple things we'd do differently if we had to do all over again.

But I think we hit the mark.

You know, we let people make decisions that were best for them and for their families.

And that's really what this country's all about.

- Kelli, what is something history should know about Governor Mike Parson?

- You know, when I think of Governor Mike Parson, I think of a man that loves Jesus.

He is a faith-driven man.

Every decision he makes, you're gonna find that he's probably gonna have prayed about it first.

He is a, you know, faith is his number one priority.

He loves his family and he loves the people.

And then I go back into, he loves the people of this state.

So when I go back in the history of what Governor Parson has done, those priorities have always been in line for him.

And when he's in this office, you know, he picked two things out that he wanted to stand on, that he knew he could move the needle.

And that was workforce development and infrastructure.

And he will go down in history as just that, a faith-based man that loves people, that loves his family, that loves his state.

And he's gonna be known as the workforce development and the infrastructure Governor.

And I'm so proud of him for that, because he changed Missouri.

He has done things that a lot of Governors couldn't do because they couldn't get along with people, they couldn't negotiate, they couldn't sit at the same table.

He was able to create those relationships.

I got so much fun to watch him work.

You know, sometimes in this business, it is like a poker game.

But I got to watch him do things, you know, Scott, I laugh 'cause I use your line all the time.

- Uh-oh.

- One time you said, "Governor Parson, I love watching him work because he comes to the table, and before they even know it, he's stolen their purse, their wallet, and their woman."

(Scott laughing) And I say that all the time because that is exactly how, he's very wise, he's very crafty.

But he's just, he's a good one.

He will go down in history, as far as I'm concerned, as one of the best Governors that Missouri will ever have.

- It is an amazing thing, when you say Governor Stark, Governor Fletcher, Governor Bond, Governor Hearnes, you say Governor Parson in that same rarified air.

Kelli, thank you so much for the time.

We really appreciate it.

- You're welcome.

Thank you Scott.

(upbeat music) - We are now joined by Robert Knodell, one of the Governor's senior advisors.

Robert, thank you so much for making the time.

- Thank you.

Appreciate the opportunity.

- So you have been involved in state government and Republican politics for a very long time, since we were pups.

How did you meet Mike Parson?

- Well, I came to Jefferson City in 2003 to work for the General Assembly on the staff side in terms of oversight and fiscal review process in the Capitol.

And he was still a relatively new member of the House of Representatives at that time.

So, you know, we developed a fast friendship.

And it became clear to me very early in my career in the Capitol that he was a very influential, effective legislator that was going to climb the ladder, you know, very quickly.

And he was someone that was going to get a lot of things done.

So, you know, we had the opportunity to work together on a lot of meaningful projects.

You know, through that friendship, you know, began to also advise him on the political side.

And we built a lot of trust amongst one another.

And he obviously ascended, you know, to be Rules chairman, one of the most influential House members.

Was elected to the Missouri Senate, and obviously became a key policymaker in the Senate before getting elected statewide.

But, you know, I advised him informally throughout that process, and then had the good fortune and the opportunity, the blessing to get to work for him in the Governor's office.

- So tell me about how he called you.

A tumultuous time, June, July, 2018.

Tell me about him calling you and asking you to be a part of his team in what was truly historic times.

- Well, it was a Monday after, or a Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend.

And, you know, you think about those early days and I almost immediately break out into sweat because it was extremely hot in Missouri that week.

And usually, you know, I was working for the House of Representatives on the campaign side, and a lot of conversations with the Speaker of the House, which obviously the House was, you know, was very involved in the issues with the former Governor.

And, you know, those were times we dressed fairly casual in the summertime.

And, you know, he called me that day and wanted to sit down and talk about a role in the Governor's office.

And this was a couple days before he was actually sworn in.

But you know, obviously word had gotten out that a change was imminent.

And you know, I remember it was an awfully hot time to have to put that suit back on.

It was extremely warm.

But, you know, he wanted to build an administration to hit the ground running.

And, you know, his number one priority at that time was really to assure Missourians on day one that the state would be functioning and that, you know, we would be in control and that everything was gonna be all right.

And, you know, he asked if I would come on board and help to do that.

I was somewhat reluctant to do so.

But, you know, right off the bat, I got the feeling that it was gonna be an administration that was going to be very active, very engaged.

And certainly he built an entire team in hours, not months, but hours that certainly was ready to hit the ground running and do a lot of good things for the people of the state.

- You look back on your time there, what are some of the successes you're most proud of?

- You know, I believe that, you know, there is in Missouri, you know, what I consider a big middle or a critical mass of people that, you know, their number one priority is to see the state do well.

To see it succeed, see it succeed economically, see it succeed in, you know, creating opportunities for young people, taking care of the most vulnerable, taking care of the elderly, that it's managed in a fiscally sound fashion.

And, you know, some of those people are on the Republican side, some of those people are on the Democrat side and in the middle.

But, you know, making sure, you know, one of my priorities was to make sure that he was able to build relationships with those individuals so that we could all work together.

And, you know, he's a consensus builder by nature.

We've had consensus-building Governors, great Governors in this state.

We've also had divisive Governors in this state.

But certainly, you know, I feel like building that consensus, leading from the middle, and, you know, making sure that Missourians' interests were at heart.

And one of the things that, we were less than two months into our time in office and we had traveled to southeast Missouri in an evening for a day of visits the next day.

And it was gonna be one of those easy days traveling with the Governor.

The weather was nice, and we were going to Dexter and Poplar Bluff and West Plains.

Friendly crowds, familiar people.

And the schedule wasn't too packed.

But that evening, you know, we were informed that there'd been a tragedy in Branson, and a tourist duck boat had sunk in bad weather and there was a large list of missing people.

And that list quickly became a list of deceased and injured.

And, you know, his ability to really take that situation and get it under control, really, you know, my relationship with the Governor had been primarily in the political arena.

But, you know, I saw him accomplishing many things at one time.

You know, he was assisting, you know, rural first responders that had never dealt with a disaster of that scale.

He was comforting family members of those that were lost.

He was comforting injured people.

He was speaking to the national media, you know, in a very national story.

And as well as to the community that wanted answers about this issue.

So, you know, and there was an accident investigation, a potential criminal investigation all going on at the same time.

And, you know, what was really evident was his skills and his life experiences in law enforcement, as a parent, as, you know, someone that has a deep and abiding faith, as well as someone that had longstanding relationships with the leaders, you know, in a rural community in Missouri.

And all of that sort of came together into one mosaic.

And instead of being that politician that simply takes advantage of a disaster to go out and put themselves in the forefront, you know, he assisted others and was the Comforter in Chief, Reassurer in Chief.

And, you know, really opened my eyes to the skill sets and what an amazing leader that he was and would become throughout his term.

- Robert Knodell, thank you so much for the time.

We appreciate it.

- You bet.

Absolutely.

- And that'll wrap up the first part of our show about the life and the folks that worked with Governor Parson.

Stick around.

We're gonna be joined by the First Lady and Governor Parson here in the Missouri Governor's Mansion after this.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to the historic Governor's Mansion.

Now we are joined by the 57th Governor of the great state of Missouri, Governor Parson.

Thank you so much for the hospitality.

- Great to be here, Scott.

- It has been an exciting, interesting, and kind of almost inspiring look back at your career.

We've talked to several of the folks who had a front seat to history during your administration.

I guess I wanna start talking about where it started in Wheatland.

Tell me about Wheatland, Missouri.

- Oh, Wheatland, Missouri is like a typical, so many little small towns in Missouri.

You know, a little town of 356 people.

You know, the school's made up of grade school to high school, all in the same building.

You know, it's just a small town feeling, when you knew all your neighbors and everybody helped one other out.

You know, my parents always worked hard.

They were sharecroppers in my early days, you know, going from farm to farm, working on other people's lands.

You know, taught you to go to church.

Faith was a big part of their life.

And, you know, in the day when you look at Wheatland, Missouri or Hickory County, which was one of the poorest counties in the state, you know, you didn't ever realize that, though.

You know, people asked me that one time, "Well, were you poor?"

And you know, honestly, we didn't know it was growing up 'cause everybody else was just like us.

And it was kind of a good time in a way, because you helped each other out.

You had good neighbors, people were friends, very respectful to one another.

And sometimes I wish we could dial the clock back a little bit to go back to those small town roots of who we are.

But I wouldn't trade anything from coming from that little old town and being born and raised in that little town.

- Some folks talk about their military service a lot, a lot of folks that serve.

You don't, it's not something that you knock folks down to tell 'em about.

But tell folks about your time serving in the military.

- Yeah, I mean, it was one of the highest honors I ever had.

You know, outside of my family.

But, you know, serving this country at 19 years old was a big deal for me when you'd really never been out of the state of Missouri before, and all of a sudden for the first time you go overseas and wearing that uniform.

I think the one thing I learned from the military at a very young age is all of a sudden, the uniform, which I wanted to wear and I was very proud to wear it, but the significance of that become, that uniform and the American flag, it was literally about all the people that wore that uniform before me and what they'd done.

And now I was in that order of our military service.

So it changed my life.

To be right honest about it, I wouldn't be the Governor of State of Missouri if I hadn't served my country in the military.

- Now I've been to Wheatland, and two things.

I noticed that at the top of the paper when I went to buy one, it said, "Hometown of Governor Mike Parson."

And some of the guys there told me you had a temper back in the day.

Just a little bit.

- Yeah, I don't know if we're gonna get to be talking about rumors or stuff, but there might've been a little truth to that.

There might've been a little truth to that.

I had a little ornery streak in me when I was growing up.

But that come from my mom, I'll be right honest about it.

My dad's about the most laid back, nicest guy in the world.

But my mom, she was a little high strung and I got that from her a little bit.

But yeah, I could lose it every once in a while.

- So the military usually helps that.

But you go from maybe a little ornery streak to, you move to Bolivar, right?

And ultimately decided to run for sheriff.

Take folks into, where were you at in your life and what were you thinking that made you-- - Yeah, when I come back, how I got to Bolivar was I come back outta the service.

I spent two tours of duty overseas, six years in the military.

I reenlisted one time.

Trying to debate what I wanted to do.

But really where my law enforcement career began was all the training and the service in the military is where all that came from.

Now I will be honest, where my law enforcement career started was in Hickory County, only it was in the backseat of a patrol car.

(Scott laughing) That's where it started.

And that's where I had a little knowledge, and the old sheriff did me a did me a solid, he did me a favor at the time, trying to keep me outta trouble.

But when I come back home, I said I would never leave this state again.

I said, "I love this state and I love the people of this state."

And I wanted to go back home.

So I was deputy sheriff for a little bit.

And then the sheriff, Charles Simmons, was in Polk County at the time, was looking for an investigator and called my phone one day and wanted me to go to work for him.

And I worked for him for a while, about a year or two.

And then I actually went in the gas station business, the thing I did as a kid.

And then when he got ready to retire, he called and he says, "Hey, I'd like for you to take my place as sheriff."

And that's kind of how I become sheriff and decided to make that move.

- It does feel like when you're sheriff, it is one of those titles, if you hadn't have been Governor, folks still might refer to you as Sheriff, right?

It's just one of those titles everybody kind of relates to.

- Yeah, well they still do.

- They think they know what they do.

- They still do, you know?

I mean, there's people I served with, and even in the Capitol sometimes, you know, people call you Sheriff instead of Governor, you know, which is fine.

But it is a title you kind of get, and you're proud of that.

I always tell people that first election I ever had was one of the most important elections I've had, that I won.

Because I did so many other elections, and believe me, being Governor's a very important election.

But you know, when you become the local sheriff on the local levels, those are the people you go to church with.

Those are the places your kids grow up, same school they go, you go to the grocery stores together, and those people know you best.

And all of a sudden they say, "Okay, I'm gonna trust you to keep my family safe."

And have that kind of confidence in you.

That's a big deal.

That's a big deal.

Because the higher you go in the political arena, the less you become on that personal stage with the voters.

You know, then it's commercials and it's talking and trying to sell people who you are.

But you don't get to talk to 'em, which you do on the local level.

So that first election was a big deal to me.

- So you run for state legislature.

Quickly move up from a member to a chairman of a powerful committee to being a state senator.

That state Senate, that really is now getting into commercials and a bigger level of politics.

- Sure, sure.

Well, you know, my political career has just been something that's seemed like something, you can't write this script, I guess for better terms.

So I go to the House of Representatives, you know, I left the sheriff's office.

And that wasn't in my plans either.

But then, you know, I was planning for a guy and he says, "Why don't you run for the House of Representatives?"

That's simply how that all started.

No planning other than that.

The other thing that's kind of funny about my political career is I spent six years in the House, which I never finished my eight years.

In the Senate, I spent six years in the Senate and I never finished my eight years.

When I become Lieutenant Governor, I never finished my first term, I always refer to a year and a half.

And now that I become Governor, I will never complete the full eight years of that term.

So I've never made it in any of those divisions yet.

- You can view it as incomplete or you can view you as 3/4 quick, right?

Get things done in a quarter early.

So you met a guy in the legislature named Steve Tilley.

Tell me about your friendship with him.

- You know, he's a one of a kind guy.

I mean, he's a friend.

I've never ever run away from that.

You know, Steve, I known him and his family for a long time now.

And I just have a great deal of respect for him.

And who he was at the time and his leadership, his role in state government and then the success of it as a private sector now.

But he's a guy I listen to.

He's been a friend the whole time since I've known him 20 years ago.

You know, he has.

- Speaking of him, it became an issue, you ran for Senate leadership after two years.

And I always thought it was one of the more interesting things that really was a harbinger of future stuff.

You came up short in that leadership election.

- Right.

- A lot of folks in those situations, we've seen recently, they lose a leadership election, they're angry for six years.

And it's six years of just hate and consternation.

I watched you as a young guy, younger guy, see you come back to the Senate, put your head down and go to work.

And before you knew it, something that I think a lot of folks thought would be just some contentious ongoing fight, it looked like everybody was pulling for you to make sure your stuff was successful.

Tell folks about the grit it must have taken to hold your head up and come back to the Senate.

- Yeah, well, first of all, it was hard.

I mean, you know, you go home and you just feel like you've lost something that you didn't feel like you deserved to lose and you wasn't expecting to lose.

And you did.

And so you have two choices, basically.

You know, you have a weekend at home.

And, you know, I realized I can go back, I could be bitter, I could do a lot of chaos if I wanted to do that.

I was smart enough to know that.

Or I could do what people voted and sent me to do and to be the best senator I could be.

So I chose that route, because at the end of the day, most people didn't even know that leadership race was even taking place, nor did they probably care at the time.

So it come back, I said I still wanted to do a good job for folks back home.

Everybody treated me good when I come back.

I think probably was trying to make sure they did.

But it was the best move I ever made.

And sometimes everything just don't go your way.

And you gotta understand, you still gotta deal with it.

Life goes on and you got a career and you gotta keep going.

Literally if I would've won that race though, if I had have won that race, I wouldn't be sitting here today with you as the Governor of the state of Missouri.

- Tell me about the guy that did win that race.

I think there's a lot of us in the cheap seats that looked at you two would be enemies for life.

But Ron Richard went from a rival to it looked like a friend to one of your loudest and most vocal supporters.

- He was, there's no question about that.

He understood the dynamics of it too.

And you know, I mean, he didn't know what I felt, but he knew I was hurt, you know?

And he graciously says, hey, come back to me and says, "What do you want to do?

I wanna help you be successful."

And that friendship just built from then, all the way to every campaigns I went to, he offered to help in every one of 'em.

And to be able to speak about him just a week or two ago, and his wife Patty was there, it was really good to just go in there and give him the respect he did.

And I was glad to be able to share some of that story with the people that were there that day.

- And to me, when people look at what unquestionably has been a successful administration, a lot of humility in that.

And to me, a lot of grit and work ethic.

And really, that whole story of how you came back, and some folks that might've been your rivals became your biggest supporters, I think that explains a lot of how this administration was as successful as it was.

- I don't think there's any question to that.

And I think Scott, maybe the gray hair in me, maybe the time, I've dealt with so many different things in my life.

But you realize, whenever you get a position to be the Governor, let's just say that, you wanna do the best thing you can do.

And if you go to the Governor's office, there's no last name on the Governor's office.

So the first thing you gotta realize, it doesn't matter whether it's Parson, whether it's Blunt, whether it's Nixon, whether it's Carnahan, it is the Governor's office.

And my biggest job was to make sure I fulfilled that job for whatever time I was there.

And that's what I set out to do from day one.

And I kind of put politics to the side as much as I could.

But you know what?

I wore everything on my sleeve.

I am who I am.

I didn't try to cater to one group or one side of the party or anything.

All I try to do is be a good Governor for the state of Missouri, to try to take a balanced approach of how you govern the state.

Because it is extremely diverse, and you have to know that.

And you just try to be what's right for everyday people.

- So I remember right before you were inaugurated as Lieutenant Governor, you run the campaign.

You had a primary opponent, you won that.

Then you run against a former Governor's son in Russ Carnahan.

- Right.

- I would say you were the underdog to start off that.

You'd had to spend all your money in primary, then you start off from nothing.

He had his bank account flush.

You beat him.

What point in that campaign did you think you had this won?

- Well, I don't know that I ever thought I had it won, but I felt good.

You know what, lemme tell you something.

If you travel this state and you work it and you go see everyday people out there, you'll get a sense of what people want.

And I think the more I could do that, that was always an advantage for me to be in front of people.

I will never be the eloquent speaker.

I will never have the background as most politicians have.

You know, but I think people want to know that you're just a everyday normal guy.

That I'm kind of like them.

And I wanted to be, and because that's really who I am and I want 'em to know that.

And I've never felt like anybody could outwork me.

I just never have.

I just feel like you tell me the goal at hand and how you win this thing.

And I'm not gonna be the guy on the table the next morning after election saying, "I wish I would've done this."

I will leave it all on the table and do everything I can to win elections, so.

- A couple weeks before you were inaugurated, you had a heart attack, I remember looking back.

That had to be a little bit of a refocusing moment, right?

- It was definitely an eyeopener.

You know, that happened on Christmas Eve.

You always think these kind of things happen to somebody else.

And all of a sudden the doctor comes into a room and says, "You can't go home.

We're sending you to ICU to have open heart surgery."

That's how quick that all took place.

And they were telling me I was gonna have to have five bypasses.

And I'll be honest with you, I thought three was really bad.

I didn't even know you could have five.

And then all of a sudden they're talking about the odds and the blockage and all these different things.

And I'll be honest with you, it was a life changer for me.

You know what, if you're ever in those moments, and some of the people that's gonna be hearing this and seeing this will understand this, but a lot of people won't.

It is one of those times in your life that you realize, okay, how have you lived your life, number one?

Do you feel like it's fulfilled?

And you also have to realize, this might be the last day.

You know, and you have to have that realistic thought in your mind.

And then after I had it, everything worked out well, I have a little bit of different perspective.

The old grudges I might have held in that Senate race you just talked about probably doesn't mean near as much to me as what it did then.

Seeing the sun come up in the morning's a big deal.

Saying, "Hey, it's good to see you," I really mean that when I say that.

So it was good for me.

- Well, you had a pretty uneventful year as Lieutenant Governor.

And that pretty much changed to start your second year as Lieutenant Governor.

I watched you in that session.

You sat in that dais more than any Governor or Lieutenant Governor I've ever seen in my life.

And presided over the Senate in a very productive, probably the most productive session I can remember.

How did you keep your focus when everybody was wanting a piece of your time?

They wanted you to say negative about the incumbent Governor.

It was a frenetic time, and you're the one person that had to keep a poker face.

- Right, right.

Well, to start off with, the reason I spent a lot of time in the Lieutenant Governor's office was 'cause I had to learn.

I didn't know all the rules of the Senate.

I didn't know all the procedures and it was gonna be very difficult for me.

And I knew I was gonna have to work a little harder at that.

So I knew good or bad, I had to spend more time in there and had to learn by the school of hard knocks.

Now dealing with what was occurring with the Governor at that time and trying to be the Lieutenant Governor, you know, there was a point in me that you have to say, "Okay, you gotta be stable here.

You can't get drawn into this chaos, for better terms, of what was going on."

Good or bad.

'Cause there was a lot of people out there maneuvering and trying to figure out, okay, what's gonna happen next?

But you know, even during all of that, you know, I don't know that it ever just hit me that, you know, you could be the next Governor.

Now people come and say, you know, "Lieutenant Governor, you may be the Governor someday."

Yeah, well, whatever, you know?

But that really never did hit me until really just about a week ahead when that was announced.

- I wanna talk about that, but I wanna wait until we come back.

We'll be right back, and we'll talk about Governor Parson, his time taking office in a tumultuous time, and his career in the Governor's office after this.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to the Missouri Governor's Mansion.

We are here discussing the life, the career, and the legacy of Governor Parson.

Thank you so much for the hospitality.

- Oh, good to be here, Scott.

- So before the break we were talking about, you were Lieutenant Governor.

It was a very turbulent time in Jefferson City.

If I recall, everybody wanted you to say something that they could take and make a story out of.

You did a good job keeping your cards close to the vest.

What was it like?

What was the day like?

'Cause it couldn't have been, had to be something you had to have on your radar.

But what was it like when you got the call to come to Jeff City, you're gonna be sworn in as Governor of Missouri?

- Yeah, well, it was one of those things you never expected.

You really didn't.

You know, we talked about this, this could happen, this might happen, all these things for months.

And then all of a sudden you get that call.

And it's a very sobering call, I will tell you that, because they're telling you basically in detail what's gonna happen from this moment forward, what you're gonna do and what's expected out of you.

And basically say, "You're gonna be the Governor of the state of Missouri moving forward.

Do you want us to come down and pick you up?

Do you want to drive to Jeff City?

But you now have protection for what's gonna happen."

So that's your first, knew it was the real deal.

That's when I first knew it was the real thing that this is going to happen.

And the conversation, when they asked me that question, to answer that to people listening is I said, "No, I'm gonna drive up there."

'Cause I wanted to have time for me and Teresa to go up there by ourselves and just try to absorb this as much as we could.

And try to explain to her, things are definitely gonna be a lot different here once we get outta this car in Jeff City.

And so that's kind of how it happened.

That's how the day went.

And then I come up here and then, man, it was just no looking back after that.

There was never a chance to second think anything.

- People see you as Governor now.

They see the successes of your administration.

It's ingrained in everybody that when they see your picture, they know it's the Governor.

That was not the case when you came in office.

You had very little time to put together an administration.

Frankly, you were inheriting a state that was quite divided, a party that was divided.

It's easy to forget because of how successful things have been how turbulent those first few weeks and months were.

- Well, I don't think, there's no question it was turbulent.

There's no question.

It was an eye-opener to me when I walked into the Governor's office.

One of the things that I will always be disappointed in, and you knew what was going on with the other Governor and the things that were happening, that you were gonna become Governor.

But when I walked in that Governor's office, me and Teresa went in there with Aaron, my chief of staff.

We went in there to kind of see what things were like.

It was literally empty office after empty office after empty office.

There was no general counsel, there was no policy, there was no budget people, there was no comms team.

There was literally just some frontline staff that was there.

And all of a sudden, you're now the Governor of the state of Missouri and you literally have very few resources or people to go to at that particular time.

I will always be disappointed in a lot of people that were there, that they walked out.

You know, not offering to help us.

And it was one of those things that, it always bothered me because I love this state.

And I mean, there's no doubt about it.

But people didn't leave because of me.

You know, to me they turned their back on the people of the state of Missouri.

You know, you should have stayed and helped, you know, to make sure this thing went.

I mean, it was okay in the way it turned out.

We did fine.

But it was a pretty empty moment when I first walked in there and all of a sudden there's nothing there to speak of.

- Well, you didn't have an inauguration, you didn't have a big Governor's Ball.

That was in July, June.

But I thought it looked like you were drinking from a fire hydrant for the first few weeks, and then you come to the State Fair.

And it felt like, while you didn't have a inauguration, it felt like that first State Fair in August was like an inauguration.

- Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, you go back to your roots.

You know, and of all the chaos in Jeff City, of all the things we were trying to do, and all things that happened in the first two weeks.

And then you kinda went to the State Fair and it was kind of just, "Okay, I'm good.

I'm a little more comfortable here.

Let's relax a little bit.

The suit really doesn't matter here at all.

I don't have to be somebody I'm not."

And so that was a pretty comforting feeling when that State Fair come around that year.

Just helped me get my feet on the ground.

And like you said, a lot of people there that were friends and were very supportive.

And I kind of needed that.

I needed that at that time.

- So tell me what it must be like.

I mean, because at the State Fair, you stayed a ton of time, you spent a lot of time at that fair.

There had to be a kid from around the Sedalia area that probably never thought he'd be Governor, but he looks at a guy and says, "No, he's from down the road here."

That's a meaningful thing, I think.

- Yeah.

You know, I hope, that's the one thing out of this whole ordeal of my life, I hope some kid from the little old towns out there that maybe's got a high school diploma like I had realize you can do anything you want to do.

You know, you've gotta work hard for it.

You don't have to be born with a silver spoon.

You don't have to have a lot of degrees hanging up on your wall to be somebody that you wanna be.

You know, you just gotta be able to go out there and go for it and do the best you can.

Doors open that you never expect to open in your life.

And I think that's what's happened to me in my entire life.

- Well, after the State Fair, about 15 months later another door opened.

It was COVID-19 on the other end.

- Yeah, yeah, shut that door.

- (laughing) It opened for everyone.

I got to talk to folks after they'd met with you.

And the hospital folks that I'd talked to that had just came from a meeting in your office or a Zoom meeting, they were telling you, what they told me was, "If you don't shut this state down, everyone's gonna die."

Then you had business leaders who I would talk to after, they'd said, "I told them that if you don't leave us alone, everybody's gonna go broke."

The definition of a calamity is when whatever you do, reasonable people could argue with.

You were in a calamity.

- Right, right.

That was probably a turning point in the whole administration of how we handled that.

And I will tell you, one of the more difficult times behind the scenes.

'Cause I had people from all over the state that I had a great deal of respect for would tell me do things on both sides.

People that I had a great deal of respect saying, "You need to do this, you need to do this," one extreme to the other.

And I think the one thing I did is I really tried to shut the clutter out.

And it's kind of what you said when the hospital folks, you had the CDC out there giving these stats that's saying tens of thousands of people are gonna die in the next 30 days.

Well, you know, you gotta pay attention to that because these guys are supposed to be the experts.

I think what you found out over the whole ordeal, there wasn't very many experts out there.

Nobody, you know, there's a lot of talk, but at the end of the day, that's all there was.

And you know, you have to understand this was a virus that people had to deal with.

And I could try to give guidance, I could try to help, but at the end of the day, you have to make decisions for yourselves and your families.

It's not government's job to do that, nor do you ever want the Governor to have the power to be able to tell everybody, "This is exactly what you're gonna do."

When you let government do that, that's problematic.

So you really got down to some basic fundamental questions.

You wanted everybody as safe as you could, you know, so you wanted to provide that.

But you had to also remember that this is a country made up of freedom and you had to allow people to do those things.

So at the end of the day, we tried to be as honest we could, said, "Here's what's going on.

Here's what we know.

You know, you're gonna have to take the best action for your family and for yourselves."

- Governor, when you got elected as state representative, I-70 was a problem.

It was a problem when you were in the Senate.

Did you ever actually think in your life that anyone, much less yourself, would be the capstone to actually redoing this state's most valuable piece of infrastructure?

- No.

I mean, that wasn't on our radar.

You know what fell into place with all of that, how that come about, really, and thankfully, and again, I'll give credit to my chief of staff and to my senior staff, when we first went in there, we decided, what is this administration gonna really focus on?

Because the one thing, I think I've been around long enough, everybody else has, you know, governors, when you're on a campaign trail, you make promises.

Depending on what groups you're in, you say you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that.

And first thing you know is you've got a bunch of priorities out there and nothing is a priority.

We decided we were gonna talk about infrastructure and workforce development, that's it.

Those are our guardrails.

Everything else happens outside, it's minor.

Everything that happens is inside those guardrails.

And when we started doing the Bridge Program, when we first did it, minor deal to most people.

But it was the first time we dipped into general revenue to be able to fund that.

All of a sudden it become very successful.

General Assembly liked it, we liked that program, we started doing some more of it.

And then the revenue started coming up.

You know, actually cutting taxes five times as Governor.

You know how many times people get in office and say, "I'm gonna cut taxes, I'm gonna cut taxes."

I didn't say that, but I literally had the opportunity to cut taxes five times in our state, more than it's ever been done in our state's history.

And it was all about income tax.

And we all believed if you give people money back and put 'em in their pockets, they'll spend the money and revenues will grow.

Well, I'm here to say that is exactly what happens.

And our revenues started going up.

And all of a sudden we're saying, "Hey, we were just dealing with COVID and coming outta this thing, our revenues keep coming up.

The feds sent a lot of money down here.

We could use that for other things."

And all of a sudden we decided, and I'll give Lincoln Hough credit for that.

Also I says, "We want to start the process of I-70.

We want to do the big municipal pieces first."

And frankly, Lincoln's the one that come in and says, "Hey, instead of doing it by piecemeal, let's do the whole thing," which was music to our ears.

We're saying, "Yeah, yeah, we're all for that!"

And so you started thinking, this is really a reality to get this done.

And to imagine having six lanes going across the state of Missouri in the middle of the United States, what that will do for the future of our state is unreal.

And what it'll also do is put a tremendous amount of pressure on other states to go to six lanes on I-70.

So yeah, we're gonna do that.

And it is pretty neat.

But I think the long term effect of I-70 will be huge.

- It's the one thing you could have done that affects folks in Dexter, it affects folks in Kirksville.

The entire state will be a rising tide from I-70.

And I don't think anybody ever thought that it'd ever happen in their lifetime.

- Well, I don't think anybody did.

When we started talking about it, I don't even know when we started putting it in General Assembly, they thought we could get it done.

But you know what, at that time I was pretty confident.

I'll be honest with you, we had about checked every box that we were gonna try to get done when I was Governor.

And, you know, this was kind of the big boy of the bunch, says, "Hey, can we do I-70?"

- Lemme talk about something that was a trend in your entire administration.

You appointed more women to more senior positions than most Governors I can recall.

Probably headlined by you appointing three women to the Missouri Supreme Court for its first ever majority female body.

It never felt like you were doing it as a box checking.

But the scoreboard does show that you appointed many, many Missourians to positions that were women.

- Yeah.

Well, the reason I did it, 'cause they're darn good at what they do.

You know, they were the most qualified candidates.

You know what, Scott, I don't get into that, the kind of things that people want you to get into sometimes, checking a box just 'cause of who somebody is.

The same way with Judge Ransom, when when we picked her, you know, there's a lot of people said, "Hey, here's why you picked her."

And there's a lot of people saying, "Hey, you need to pick somebody else."

The bottom line is when you get them people in there and you really say, "Okay, what is the best for the state of Missouri?

What is the best for my grandkids and my great grandkids and our children?"

You know, you try to put the people in the right spots.

The women that got picked, I guarantee you every one of 'em earned their place to be picked.

Nobody gave them anything.

They just went in, they had great records and they had a great performance and that's why they got selected.

- End of the day, when you walk out, you can honestly say you left it better than you found it.

But what is the one thing you'll be the most proud of?

- You know, I think it will be all the accomplishments that we've done.

Being around some of the best young minds that you can imagine being around.

The people I worked around the Governor's office for six and a half years are incredible people.

All the way from the people answering the phones in the back rooms that nobody ever gets to see all the way to my senior staff.

But you want to talk about a group of people dedicated, like, I believe, I love this state.

And they knew how I felt about that.

And every day we were trying to accomplish how to make this state better.

And people ask me all the time, says, "You know, what do you wanna be remembered about?

What's your legacy?"

You know, I'll let you write the legacies and the people outside there try to figure out what the legacies are.

You know, it's pretty simple for me.

I hope when they leave, somebody will say, you know, "Oh, Mike Parson, he was a pretty good Governor when he was there."

And if they say that, I'm just fine.

- Let ask you about your successor.

A person that you served with in the Senate, a person that you had chose to be your Lieutenant Governor, a person you endorsed.

Had to feel good in August when he won that primary by a comfortable margin.

It was almost an endorsement of your time in the office.

- Well, first of all, when you even talk about that, picking five statewide offices in a six and a half year period, I don't know that any Governor in the nation has ever done that.

And we've done it.

And every one of 'em by their own rights have been successful and now stood on their own two feet and won elections.

So I'm definitely proud of all of those people, that I had a part of it.

Because I believe that's the future of Missouri, but especially the Lieutenant Governor, soon to be the 58th Governor of the state of Missouri.

I couldn't be more proud of that because I know how he thinks and I think what's gonna happen, 'cause I'm gonna say we put a pretty good foundation down there.

It's pretty solid.

Just build on the foundation.

And I think he'll get right after it and know the opportunity.

And I couldn't be more proud how this transition's gonna be.

And guarantee you, he will have the best transition from Governor to Governor that anybody's ever had.

- Governor, let's take a break.

When we come back, see if the First Lady will join us.

How about that?

- Alright, sounds good.

Well, she can tell you a few stories.

- (chuckling) We'll be right back to hear a few stories from the First Lady of the state of Missouri after this.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to the Governor's Mansion and our look at the life, the legacy, and the career of Governor Mike Parson.

We are now joined by the First Lady of the state of Missouri, Teresa Parson.

Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for hosting us here.

- Thank you, happy to be here.

- So break down what it's like to go from, he was in politics and then Lieutenant Governor.

But when you're Governor and it gets thrust on you as suddenly as this did, talk about the transition you had to make in your life to accommodate being First Lady of Missouri.

- Well, actually Scott, you know, leaving my hometown, my family, my friends, it was quite an upset in my lifestyle at that point in time.

So I just wanted to throw myself into doing all that I could and to fill my days.

And so that's what I did.

And joined the Governor the first couple of years almost on every travel trip that he did.

So it was good.

- You carved out a very special place in the hearts of Missourians.

It does feel like you've made this home very accessible, but really you've been proactive about going places, maybe moreso than a lot of First Ladies I remember in recent history.

It is really neat when you're in a part of Missouri, maybe a rural part, like where we're from, and you see the First Lady come.

That's an honor.

And that, I think, is a motivator for folks in areas that might not ever see the First Lady come through.

- Well, you know, it was also an honor for me to go out and to do that.

I had heard of a lot of small towns here across the state, but I didn't have the opportunity to always go because I was working.

I had a career and was working each day.

And even when the Governor was here in Jefferson City, my days were spent at home, at the bank working.

So it quite an honor and a privilege for me to be able to travel with the Governor along the way.

- Let's talk about some of the folks that have helped you, some of the folks we've interviewed before.

Tell folks about Aaron Willard and Kelli Jones.

- Well, I don't think there's any question.

Those two have been with me from day one and played a huge, significant role in this administration.

Looking back on it, I don't know what I would've done without either one of 'em, their dedication.

And the one thing I'll say about both of those, they're extremely intelligent, extremely smart.

But more than anything, they're loyal.

They're loyal to the mission.

They understood who I was and the way I viewed the world.

And they just tried to make me the best Governor that they could possibly help someone to do.

And I just think the world of both of 'em.

And they helped me some most difficult times as Governor.

And they were, every step of the way, they met every challenge just like I did.

So it was never just me as Governor, and I would never ever take the credit for saying I did all these things.

We did all these things together with people like Aaron and Kelli by my side.

- As far as, it is always interesting to see the dynamic between a staff and the spouse.

But it did feel like you had a good camaraderie with the staff the Governor brought on.

- I did.

We always, you know, when we would have events and stuff here in the mansion and they attended, we worked together as well.

And a lot of things between the two offices that you just needed to work together, and it was always an easy task to do.

- Governor, we talked about Mike Kehoe, but tell folks about Scott Fitzpatrick and Vivek Malek, folks that you appointed to statewide office that, like you said, have been endorsed by the public in their own election, their own right.

- Yeah, you know, one thing I'm so proud of, Scott, of Andrew, of Vivek, Mike, Senator Schmitt now, you know, all of those people, the one thing they all got in common is they're workers.

They're hard workers, and I do believe they put Missourians first.

And I think that's something, we've lost that a little bit over the years in the political arena by trying to make the perfect politician.

Well, there's no such thing as a perfect politician.

I think we all know that.

But I knew all of 'em would work hard.

I knew all of them would do the best they could to make this state better.

And I think when the elections happen and they won by the margins they won, it makes you feel pretty good that you picked the right people to be able to do that.

And again, you know, for the Lieutenant Governor gonna take my place kind of in that pecking order is pretty good.

And then if you look at Scott and Andrew and Vivek, we've got a bench second to none for the future of this state.

So it's pretty proud that you're gonna have a piece of that.

- You ever flip through the TV and you see Eric Schmitt on some national news show and be like, "I know that guy!"

- Yeah!

I remember serving with him in the Senate, you know?

You know, and he wasn't doing them fancy interviews back then.

But Eric's a great guy, become a real good friend.

And I'm proud that he's up there representing us in Missouri and glad he's willing to do it.

- Is there anybody that, in many ways, embodies your military service, small town roots and just humility that Andrew Bailey does?

- Oh, I don't think so.

I mean, Andrew's the real deal, man.

I mean, he's red, white and blue.

He served this country.

Decorated veteran, I might add.

And then he's just wicked smart.

I mean, I'm just telling you, he just is.

He just knows the ins and outs of the law.

And you gotta understand all these guys' family values too.

He's got a family, you know, he's got foster kids, he's got all these things going on.

And to be able to do what he is done on his own with no help from anybody, it's a pretty amazing story.

And then to be able to pick him and put him in a position, quoted as a non politician at the time, he wasn't involved in the political arena whatsoever.

He was an attorney in the Department of Corrections when he become my general counsel, which he thought was a big deal then.

But I showed him a path to a bigger deal after that, being my general counsel.

So I'm proud of Andrew for the work he's done, and he's gonna be here.

- I feel like oftentimes Andrew Bailey did not set out with some strategic game board to be Governor or President or whatever.

He just kind of showed up, and opportunities came when you work hard, right?

- Right, right.

Yeah, I don't think he had any great advisors.

One day I just says, "Hey, I got an idea.

And this is what you're gonna do," you know?

And he comes back and he did that.

And then, you know, I think to add the icing on the cake, look, the longer he's been Attorney General and why I feel like I got the right guy.

You know, when the President of the United States taps you on the shoulder and says, "Hey, I wanna meet with you," and the Vice President wants to meet with you in a new administration, that's a pretty good day for a young man like Andrew Bailey.

And it's a pretty good day for Missourians, that they're willing to say, "Hey, this guy's got a lot of ability."

And just to have that conversation was a big deal.

- Mrs. Parson, tell folks about the incoming First Lady Claudia Kehoe.

- Well, Claudia and I have a great relationship.

We've always been able to work together.

And in so many ways we're alike, I believe.

Family is very important to Claudia as well as myself.

Service, she has always served her community, and I did back home as well before coming up here.

And we've worked together, and every time I reached out to Claudia to help here with any event here in the mansion, she was always here to help.

So I think we have a great First Lady coming in.

I'm very proud of her.

- Tell folks about this house.

It was the Governor's Mansion.

You've renamed it to the People's House, correct?

- Correct.

- Tell folks about some of the things you've done to change and update this house to make it more accessible to folks.

- Well, you know, there was several projects that were needing to be done.

And that was one of the first meetings with OA.

And they asked if they would be allowed to come in and do some projects that were needing to be done.

And the Governor and I agreed that that was something we wanted to do as well, because this historic home we should all be very proud of.

It's something that we need to keep up as time goes on.

We maintain our own homes well, and I think the People's House needs to be maintained as well also.

So we've pretty much moved through the first floor of the mansion and done some updates on the second floor.

And this room here that we're in today also has been repainted.

And I think I'm very proud of the things and the accomplishments that we've been able to do while we've been here to the house.

- We was actually the first Governor and First Lady that got kicked outta the mansion within six months.

(Scott and Teresa laughing) We had to leave!

- Thanks for telling them that.

- So that was the first time we had that.

- Tell folks, though, one thing I loved is you started to do a family festival in the fall.

And I thought that was one of the coolest things.

It is flooded with people.

And I think it really does make the mansion look more accessible when you've had thousands and thousands of kids come through here and have a blast going crazy in the yard.

- That was pretty much a joint decision.

Actually, Ms. Shari Childs, the executive director here in the mansion, approached me one day in the fall and said, "Rather than having trick or treating, why don't we do it?"

And then I kind of, we together then made the decision to do it on a Saturday afternoon, what was much warmer for the children.

And we could incorporate the fall decorations and everything into it as well.

And yes, that's been highly successful, very proud of it.

We have thousands of people, you're correct, come through here.

- One of my most fun memories of both of you in the Governor's Mansion is at Christmastime.

Jeff City does a terrific Living Windows downtown.

And you're sort of opening up the mansion, let folks come through.

And there would be a line for four or five blocks no matter how cold it was.

And a lot of, I mean, a wonderful thing to do, a lot of Governors would've came down, but I watched the both of you stay till every single person that came to that line and took a picture with you, hours and hours and hours.

Now there's not many Governors I know that would stay there four hours and take pictures with folks off the street.

- We have.

We've done that each year until this year.

And I will say, I'll be the one to admit, this year our family was here and a lot of friends from back home.

And so we did sneak away a little early this year.

But prior to that, each and every year we stood downstairs and shook hands and loved the time meeting and greeting the people.

- I think that's a cool thing, that I think most folks don't plan to see the Governor, get a picture with him.

And they're willing to stand in line in chilly temperatures for blocks and blocks to get to walk through the mansion and be greeted.

That that is, I think, maybe a sign of some of the things you brought to the state and to this home.

Alright, Governor, lemme ask you, I'll ask you, First Lady, if you don't mind, first.

How would you like history to remember yours and the Governor's time in in the office?

- Well, I think we agree.

I think if when we leave office and they say that the Governor and First Lady were pretty good people and accomplished some things, we're gonna be happy.

I hope that they know how important children across the state are to me, because that's where my focus has been, all children related initiatives.

And the home here.

And that's the two things.

I hope they remember those two things about myself, and.

- Governor, you redid I-70, you cut taxes, from Kehoe to Fitzpatrick to Malek to Eric Schmitt to Bailey, all folks you've appointed been reelected.

You leave the state in a good financial situation, accomplishing things folks didn't think possible while dealing with hopefully once in a lifetime issues like a COVID or flooding.

But what do you want folks to think when the history books write the time of Governor Mike Parson?

What would you be happy if they said?

- You know, I think just how we handled everything during this administration.

How we stayed focused on the people of this state and we put them before all else, you know, before politics, before parties, anything of those natures.

And I hope that when we get done, people realize we're a little better off.

And I think the other thing is I wanted people to know, we are who we are.

No difference whether we're sitting here talking to you today or I'm gonna be over here in the office shortly, wherever we might be.

We are ordinary people that come from the same cloth that most Missourians come from when they were kids.

We grew up, we worked hard, we tried to be decent, we had to try to help people out when the days come, we're based on faith, and family's important to us.

And we want Missourians to know family's important to us through this administration.

Because at the end of the day, titles are not gonna be with you.

Your family's always gonna be with you.

And the Missouri people out there are always gonna be pretty special to me and Teresa of all the people we've got to meet and see during this administration.

Will be the one thing I will miss, getting to see all those people all the time.

- Governor, First Lady, thank you so much for your time and hospitality.

I wanna thank everybody for watching this look back on the career of Governor Parson.

I wanna thank the staff here at the Governor's Mansion for such terrific hospitality.

We thank all of you for watching.

(upbeat music)