A former bellwether state, Missouri has politically trended rightward in recent years and is today a Republican stronghold at both the federal and state levels. The last Democrat to hold the office of governor in Missouri is Jay Nixon, who comfortably won re-election in 2012. In 2020, Parson won by 16.41% in the state's first gubernatorial election in which a Republican won by a double-digit margin since John Ashcroft's landslide re-election in 1988. Major news organizations predict the state to elect another Republican governor in 2024.[2]