Peter Dickson Kinder (born May 12, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2017. He was appointed as a co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority in August 2017, serving in that post until he resigned in June 2018. Kinder was first elected lieutenant governor in 2004, succeeding Joe Maxwell, and was re-elected in 2008 at the same time Democrat Jay Nixon was elected Governor. Kinder was the only Republican in Missouri to win statewide office in 2008, as all other Republicans running for each of the other statewide offices suffered defeat. Despite the generally poor election year for Republicans, Kinder carried 109 of Missouri's 114 counties. Considered the front-runner in the 2012 Republican gubernatorial primary, Kinder instead ran for re-election in 2012 and was again the only Republican to win statewide and became the first lieutenant governor to be elected to a third term in Missouri since 1940. In July 2015, Kinder announced his entry into the 2016 gubernatorial election; he was later defeated in the Republican primary by Eric Greitens. Education and early career Kinder was born and raised in Cape Girardeau, the son of pediatrician James A. Kinder, Jr. and Mary Frances Hunter Kinder. He attended Cape Girardeau Public Schools and then attended Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri in Columbia. He received his J.D. degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas in 1979 and was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1980. In 1972, fresh out of high school, Kinder worked for former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth's re-election bid for Missouri attorney general. After graduating from law school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, Kinder managed Bill Emerson's successful 1980 campaign for U.S. Congress. It was the first time a Republican won in southeast Missouri for U.S. Congress since 1928. After law school Kinder served as a member of the late U.S. Representative Bill Emerson's staff in Washington, D.C. from 1980 to 1983. He returned to Missouri and worked as an attorney and real estate specialist for hotel developer Charles Drury of Drury Industries. In 1987 Kinder became associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, where he wrote weekly columns and editorials. Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau dedicated its Department of Pediatrics in memory to his father James A. Kinder, M.D. who died on