Missouri House Majority Leader Alex Riley says he was interested in the House speaker position from “Day 1.”
Riley is likely to ascend to the post in 2027, especially since the GOP is widely expected to have a continued majority after the 2026 election. As speaker, Riley will have the ability to form committees and decide where certain bills go for hearings.
“That's where you have the most ability to impact change and do positive things for the state,” Riley said during a recent interview on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air. “So it's definitely something I was interested in. I didn't necessarily know for sure that that was going to all work out that way. But I was interested in it.”
Republicans typically select their House speaker-designee in the year before an election cycle. And unlike in other years, Riley didn’t have any competition for the post – something he said could help him once he gets the speaker’s gavel.
He noted that GOP House members sometimes don’t vote the same way. For instance: During last year’s special session, a number of Republican representatives opposed a ballot item to restrict state constitutional amendments and a new congressional map. But because passage of both of those items were never in doubt, none of those lawmakers faced any retribution for their no votes.
“It's not really true that we just have a Republican super majority where everyone thinks the same and votes the same way. We really have more like four or five or six different factions that see the world very differently,” Riley said. “And for me, what I wanted to do was focus on bringing those factions together as much as I can around the shared policy goals that we have.”
A difficult 2026 session
Before getting to 2027, Riley will be responsible for bringing up bills for his House colleagues to debate. That includes a plan to phase out the state’s income tax that Gov. Mike Kehoe highlighted during his State of the State speech.
Riley said the final ballot measure will likely mirror what Kehoe wants: phasing out the income tax over a five-year period, allowing for the legislature to expand sales taxes on services, and exempting certain industries like health care and real estate from the expanded tax.
“I think broadly speaking, it's going to end up something like what the governor has talked about in his State of the State address,” Riley said. “But I do think the exact language will look different than what's been filed so far.”
Getting that plan to voters could be challenging.
That’s because Senate Democrats have followed through on their promise to slow down proceedings in their chamber following last year’s Republican move to abruptly cut off debate. And Riley acknowledged the filibustering could make passing contested policies like the income tax plan more challenging.
Riley said disagreements over policy are fair game in the legislature. But he also said that he hopes legislation with bipartisan consensus is able to make it through the process.
“What I hope we don't see, and I think will be nothing but damaging for the state, is if you see people holding up noncontroversial, overwhelmingly bipartisan things for their own political advantage,” Riley said. “That's what concerns me the most.”
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
