JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – After presiding over one of the most successful election cycles for Republicans in a generation, Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock announced Thursday night that he would not re-election to the position.
However, Hancock said he made the decision not to run long ago, just after he was elected in February 2015. He added that he assumed the leadership role to shore up the party’s faltering finances and to provide a stable party structure to ensure victory in an extremely important 2016 election cycle. With nearly full Republican control of all statewide offices and a legislative chamber that is no more blue than the day he took on the job, Hancock believes he accomplished what he set out to do.
“I had always planned on just serving through 2016 and leaving the campsite better than I found it,” he told the Missouri Times Friday. “I didn’t imagine at the time that things would go as historically well as they did.”
However, he quickly deflected credit of the party’s latest successes to stronger statewide candidates and the work of MRP Executive Director Jonathon Prouty.
“It would be a mistake to assign too much credit to me,” he said. “My role was a small one, and I’m just gratified that at the end of the campaign season the party didn’t hurt anyone.”
Hancock previously served as executive director for the party from 1997 to 2004 before founding his own political consulting firm and a public opinion research firm called Public Pulse Research, though he remained involved in party politics. He says he has a few career options lined up after new elections are held for the party chair role Jan. 7, 2017, but he notes that none of those options are certain.
