Senator Claire McCaskill says she has given her final answer about whether she will run for Missouri Governor in 2016.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
“That’s a firm ‘No,'” she said on an interview with KCUR Radio in Kansas City. McCaskill instead shifted the discussion to Attorney General Chris Koster, the only declared Democratic candidate for the governor’s race in the 2016 cycle.
McCaskill said she thinks she can make a greater impact by staying in the U.S. Senate.
“At the end of the day you’ve got to decide, is the job that you’re thinking about going for, is it a better job than the one you have and can you do more, and frankly I am convinced I can’t,” she said. “I now have significant seniority. I now am a part of a much smaller group holding down the middle – the moderates that are able to talk to the extremes and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get some compromises done for Missourians and Americans.'”
McCaskill called Koster a “terrific candidate that is ready to run for governor,” and said she looks, “forward to working really hard for Chris Koster.”
Koster’s campaign issued a statement responding to the Senator’s announcement calling her the, “heart and soul of the Democratic Party in Missouri.”
“Senator McCaskill is a friend and advisor to me and it is a friendship I hope continues for many years to come. Claire’s voice for centrist principles will move the U.S. Senate and our country forward,” Koster wrote.
