WESTPHALIA — Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe told 192 attendees at the Osage County Lincoln Day Banquet Feb. 20 that it is an honor to work with Gov. Mike Parson because “what you see is what you get.”

“We want somebody who is the real deal and he has done a fantastic job,” Kehoe said. “I came from a community of 1.5 million (people) in north St. Louis — a totally different environment.”

Kehoe said when he was 25 he had the opportunity to move to Osage County and a couple allowed him to live in the basement of their home in what is now the Thriftway in Linn.

“I can tell you when I got from the city to Linn, Missouri, I really learned what life was about,” he said. “People really took me in.”

Kehoe named the people who raised him when he came to Osage County and molded who he is today.

“Being here is like being home, and I just can’t think you — from the bottom of my heart — to go from that journey in north City St. Louis to the second highest spot in the state of Missouri, the people in this room, you are the ones who gave me the foundation to get there,” Kehoe said. “I don’t say this at every county Lincoln Day either.”

Kehoe thanked the people for the journey he has been leading,the business they do with him, the faith they have shown him as state senator and lieutenant governor.

“We have had quite a ride and I think you have only seen the beginning of a Parson Administration with Republican senators and state representatives that are here, I think you are going to see another several years of some unbelievable things,” Kehoe said.

Kehoe said Parson puts his money where his mouth is and told the crowd over the next few years they were going to see more of the right things.

He mentioned a part of Parson’s earlier speech where the governor said abortions last year numbered 1,400 versus the 8,000 recorded in the state in 2004. Parson also attended the Mid-West March for Life recently — the first Missouri governor to do so.

“I think what you are going to see from your Republican legislature is more of the right things — more reductions in abortions until we get to zero, you are going to continue to see us protect those freedoms that — we have too many laws now — it’s our job to get government out of your life,” Kehoe said. “Help where we can in education, infrastructure and workforce development.”