About Mel Carnahan

Governor Mel Carnahan was born in Birch Tree, Missouri in 1934. His father, Albert Sidney Johnson Carnahan represented Missouri’s eighth Congressional for eight terms beginning in 1944. As a result of his father’s public service, Mel Carnahan graduated from high school in Washington, D.C. and earned an undergraduate degree at George Washington University. After military service, he returned to Missouri and received his J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1959.

Mel Carnahan was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1962. In 1980, he was elected Missouri State Treasurer, serving from 1981 to 1985. In 1988, Carnahan was elected Lieutenant Governor of Missouri and then elected to serve two terms as Governor in 1992 and 1996. He was elected posthumously to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

During his two terms as Governor, Mel Carnahan developed the state’s first comprehensive economic development plan, reformed Missouri’s welfare system, led the effort to cut taxes, enacted tough anticrime laws, and increased funding for education, job creation, and law enforcement. His leadership resulted in Missouri’s Outstanding Schools Act that instituted major reforms in education, including reduction of class size, career programs for non-college-bound students, and the Parents as Teachers Program.