Parson’s office considering AG appointment
The governor’s office must now begin considering an appointment to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office after Josh Hawley’s U.S. Senate win Tuesday.
Since 1865, the Missouri attorney general has been elected by a statewide vote. In 2017, Hawley took the oath of office after beating his Democratic opponent by approximately 500,000 votes. According to Gov. Mike Parson’s press office, the governor will pick an appointment to serve as Missouri’s next attorney general soon.
“We will be prepared when that day comes to fill that position,” Parson said Tuesday night. “We’ll have an AG in place in the near future.”
The Missouri Supreme Court was also set to hear arguments on a case to see if the governor’s office can appoint Mike Kehoe as the lieutenant governor.
The state constitution clearly gives the governor the power to appoint people to vacated executive posts “unless otherwise prohibited by law.” Legal experts ABC 17 News spoke to said they were unaware of any state laws that would stop Parson from being able to appoint the next attorney general.
Missouri has few rules on who can serve as attorney general. The constitution requires the person to be a U.S. citizen and a Missouri resident for at least one year. State law further requires anyone that practices law, such as the attorney general, must have a license to do so.
While the state has no age requirement for attorney general, it takes years of college education to obtain a law license in the state. Missouri is one of 15 states without an age requirement for its attorney general, according to a 2012 survey from the Council of State Governments.
