Wasinger says he’ll bring values learned in Hannibal to Jefferson City as lieutenant governor

HANNIBAL, Mo. — David Wasinger says the life lessons he developed as a kid growing up in Hannibal will influence the decisions he makes as the next lieutenant governor of Missouri.

Wasinger, 61, will be sworn into office by Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Russell, both graduates of Hannibal High School, during Monday’s inauguration of Mike Kehoe as governor at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.

Wasinger, a St. Louis lawyer, said his values are based on hard work, faith and family that come from his upbringing.

“I engaged in the Tom Sawyer fence painting contest when I was 12 years old,” he said in a phone interview last week. “I participated with my twin sister (Lisa) in the raft race down the Mississippi River during Tom Sawyer Days. I flipped burgers at the Hardee’s restaurant, worked the midnight shift, mopped floors and rode my bicycle home at one in the morning. Those experiences instilled the values that I intend on taking with me to the lieutenant governor’s office.”

Wasinger was born in 1963 in Hannibal, grew up in a home with three siblings on St. Mary’s Avenue and graduated from Hannibal High School in 1981. He said the family had a 250-acre farm outside of Hannibal with about 50 head of cattle while also raising corn and soybeans. Wasinger went on to the University of Missouri and the Vanderbilt University School of Law. His father, Marion, was a lawyer in Hannibal, and his brother, Mark, eventually took over the family law practice. 

Wasinger met his wife, Colleen, in St. Louis and joined a small law firm in Brentwood that now is named Wasinger Daming. He was selected in 2024 to be included in the 30^th edition of “The Best Lawyers in America,” a list restricted to five percent of the attorneys in Missouri. He now serves as senior counsel for the firm and not as a partner. 

Wasinger received two gigantic paydays in 2014 as a whistleblower against two of the biggest global banks. He helped one client win $57 million when Bank of America’s Countrywide unit was found liable in federal court in New York for selling defective mortgage loans to government-backed agencies. Wasinger then filed a case on behalf of a whistleblower alleging JPMorgan Chase & Co. defrauded the government into insuring flawed home loans. That client collected $63.9 million. 

“We’ve been very, very fortunate,” Wasinger told Reuters in an interview. “I am just a country lawyer from Missouri trying to hold Wall Street accountable.”

Wasinger is the first member of his family to get into politics. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Missouri auditor in 2018 before this year’s campaign.

“A couple of people had encouraged me to take a look at running for the office,” Wasinger said. “I talked it over with my wife and kids, and we decided to let ‘er rip and run as an outsider. It’s a major effort to run for statewide office, and we just traveled the state. We got a lot of support. We filmed our TV commercials in Hannibal — one down on Main Street and the other one just outside of Hannibal.”

Wasinger was the main funder of his campaign, loaning himself $2.6 million as of July 31 campaign finance filings. He defeated state Sen. Lincoln Hough, state Sen. Holly Rehder and two other candidates in the Republican primary in August, then easily defeated Democratic nominee Richard Brown on Nov. 5, earning 57 percent of the vote to Brown’s 38 percent.

Wasinger said he ran for lieutenant governor because he and his wife didn’t like the direction of the state and the direction of the country.

“We’ve got two sons (Alex and Andrew), and we’d like them to have the same Missouri and the same America that we grew up in,” he said. “I decided to step off the sidelines and try to make a difference. I think our campaign resonated with Missourians that they would like to see some change in Jefferson City. I think they want change in Washington, D.C., so we ran as an outsider. I think a lot of people feel the same way I do. They want change and to shake things up in Jefferson City, and that’s the reason I ran.”

Wasinger has repeatedly connected himself to President-elect Donald Trump, labeling himself a “MAGA conservative.”

An October story about Wasinger written by Kansas City-based journalist Barbara Shelly for the Missouri Independent said Missourians have elected someone who, “in the campaign’s final weeks, crashed into public awareness with aggressive TV ads promising to drain the swamp and say ‘adios, amigos’ to illegal immigrants who venture into Missouri.”

As the president of the Missouri Senate, Wasinger said he wants to push more conservative legislation “across the finish line of Missouri.”

“As lieutenant governor, I’ll be encouraging tourism in Hannibal and throughout the state,” he said. “People are concerned about public safety. I’m also responsible for advocating for seniors. My mother (Lorene) has had some health-related setbacks in the last year or two, and some of those senior living facilities could be shored up, just based on personal experience and the number of stories I’ve heard. 

“Last but not least, I would be an advocate for veterans. We intend on putting veterans on a pedestal where they belong, and we want Missouri to be a focal point and a leading state in the country where veterans want to come in and be treated with the respect and honor that they’ve earned.”

The lieutenant governor doesn’t run on a ticket with the governor but is next in line for governor, while also sitting on various boards and breaking ties in the state Senate. Recent lieutenant governors who went on to become governor were Kehoe, Mike Parson (2017-18), Roger Wilson (October 2000 through January 2001) and Mel Carnahan (1993-2000).

For now, Wasinger is simply trying to wrap his arms around his duties in his new role.

“We’ve got to preside over the state Senate, which will be learning these personalities and the Senate rules in and of itself,” he said. “We’re working really well in the transition with the current lieutenant governor (Gov.-elect Kehoe), and it has been very smooth. He’s been very gracious. We intend on working with a lot of the same legislative priorities and working with his staff in terms of moving the state forward.”