A longtime friend of the University, Ashcroft is a regular visitor on campus. Most recently, he concluded his 2000 Senatorial re-election campaign with a rally on the Evangel campus the evening before election day. Ashcroft has been guest speaker at Evangel commencement ceremonies three times, most recently in 1999.

John Ashcroft was elected to the United States Senate in 1994, winning 60 percent of the vote and carrying every county in the state. He served the people of Missouri as their governor for two terms, winning re-election in 1988 by 64 percent, the largest percentage of any Missouri governor since the Civil War. He also served as Missouri's Auditor and Attorney General.
You can read more about John Ashcroft at www.johnashcroft.com.

John Ashcroft picked as new Attorney General

(The following has been compiled from AP, CNN and News-Leader stories)

December 22, 2000

AUSTIN, Texas - President-elect George W. Bush today named Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft as his nominee for attorney general, saying the recently unseated lawmaker was a man of "proven character and executive ability. "

"John Ashcroft is a man of unquestionable integrity, someone who knows how to manage, an executive," Bush said at a news conference this morning in Austin. "He has a commitment to the fair and impartial administration of justice. He will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor. He will enforce the law and he will follow the truth. "

Long considered a top candidate for the Cabinet post, the 58-year-old Republican Senator accepted the appointment this morning. Ashcroft was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994. He also served two terms as Missouri's Governor (1984-1992) and two terms as Missouri Attorney General (1976-1984).
Asked how an Ashcroft Department of Justice would differ from the ship run by Janet Reno, the current attorney general, Bush replied, "I can only tell you about the future and let you draw your own conclusions. "

"John Ashcroft is going to hold the job for the right reason," Bush added. " and the right reason is to serve the country. "

A favorite of Republican conservatives, Ashcroft said he would ''strive to be a guardian of liberty and equal justice. '' He said the rule of law ''knows no class, sees no color and bows to no creed,'' and that will be his guideline.
"President-elect Bush, you have my word that I will administer the Department of Justice with integrity, I will advise your administration with integrity and I will enforce the law with integrity," Ashcroft said, adding he "embraces the job without any reservation. "

Ashcroft is a former Missouri attorney general and governor who was narrowly defeated in his 2000 Senate re-election bid. In one of this past Election Night's most intriguing stories, Ashcroft lost his Senate seat to Missouri Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan, a longtime rival who was killed in a plane crash five weeks before voters went to the polls. His name remained on the ballot and he won. His widow, Jean, was appointed to the Senate seat.

Ashcroft said political defeat ''brings more than emotion and pain, it brings perspective. '' With the appointment, he said, it also brought a call to renewed and noble service.

"Almost every day for the last six years I have walked past the back of the Supreme Court building on the way to my Senate desk," Ashcroft said of his tenure in the upper chamber. "On the final day of the session, I recall walking past the high court, where words are etched in the marble, "Justice, guardian of liberty.

"They perfectly capture my aspirations of serving the next president and working in the Department of Justice," he said.