John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the 79th United States attorney general under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. A Republican from Missouri, Ashcroft represented the state in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2001, and held statewide office as the 29th auditor (1973–1975), 38th attorney general (1976–1985), and 50th governor of Missouri (1985–1993). He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.
Ashcroft graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1960 before receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Yale College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. After unsuccessfully running for the U.S. House of Representatives, he was appointed Missouri State Auditor in 1973, before being defeated for re-election in 1974. He then served two consecutive terms as Missouri Attorney General and as Missouri Governor (a historical first for a Republican candidate in the state). He is the only Republican to serve two full consecutive terms as governor to date. He also served one term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri until losing a race for a second term in 2000. Ashcroft had early appointments in Missouri state government, and was mentored by John Danforth. He has written several books about politics and ethics.
After George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, he selected Ashcroft to serve as U.S. Attorney General. As Attorney General, Ashcroft was a key supporter of the USA Patriot Act following the September 11 attacks and the use of torture on suspected terrorists. Ashcroft stepped down as Attorney General in February 2005, and was replaced by Alberto Gonzales. Since 2011, Ashcroft sits on the board of directors for the private military company Academi (formerly Blackwater) and is a professor at the Regent University School of Law, a conservative Christian institution affiliated with the late televangelist Pat Robertson; he has also been a member of the Federalist Society. His son, Jay Ashcroft, is also a politician who served as Secretary of State of Missouri from 2017 to 2025, before a failed bid for governor in 2024.
He was one of The Singing Senators, a group of four Republican senators that consisted of Trent Lott, Larry Craig and Jim Jeffords.
Early life John David Ashcroft was born in Chicago on May 9, 1942, the son of homemaker Grace P. (née Larsen) and minister James Robert Ashcroft. His maternal grandparents were Norwegian, while his paternal grandfather was Irish. He grew up in Willard, Missouri, where his father was a minister in an Assemblies of God congregation in nearby Springfield, served as president of Evangel University (1958–1974), and jointly as President of Central Bible College (1958–1963). Ashcroft graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1960. He attended Yale University, where he was a member of the St. Elmo Society, graduating in 1964. He received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1967. After law school, he briefly taught Business Law and worked as an administrator at Southwest Missouri State University. During the Vietnam War, he was not drafted because he received six student draft deferments and one occupational deferment due to his teaching work.
Missouri political career State Auditor (1973–1975) In 1972, Ashcroft ran for a congressional seat in southwest Missouri in the Republican primary election, narrowly losing to Gene Taylor. After the primary, Missouri Governor Kit Bond appointed Ashcroft to the office of State Auditor, which Bond had vacated when he became governor.
In 1974, Ashcroft was narrowly defeated for election to that post by Jackson County Executive George W. Lehr. Lehr had argued that Ashcroft, who is not an accountant, was not qualified to be the State Auditor.
Attorney General of Missouri (1976–1985)
Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, who was then in his second term, hired Ashcroft as an assistant state attorney general. In 1976, Danforth retired from the state attorney general post to run for the U.S. Senate, and Ashcroft ran to replace him. He was unopposed in the Republican primaryMissouri Attorney General Race Gets Little Attention, Lacks Controversy. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. August 1, 1976. and defeated Democrat James Baker in the general election.Ashcroft points to ballot place. The Daily Capital News. November 4, 1976. He was scheduled to be sworn in on January 10, 1977, but Danforth resigned from his post early ahead of his swearing in to the U.S. Senate, so Ashcroft became attorney general on December 27, 1976.Changing of the guard begins with Ashcroft. The Daily Capital News. December 28, 1976. In 1980, Ashcroft was re-elected with 64.5 percent of the vote, winning 96 of Missouri's 114 counties.
During his tenure, Ashcroft challenged court-ordered plans to racially integrate schools in St. Louis and Kansas City. In response to his non-compliance, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri threatened him with contempt of court. During his gubernatorial campaign, Ashcroft bragged that this threat was proof of his commitment to upholding racial segregation.
In 1983, Ashcroft wrote the leading amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court Case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., supporting the use of video cassette recorders for time shifting of television programs.
Governor of Missouri (1985–1993)
Ashcroft was elected governor in 1984 and re-elected in 1988, becoming the first Republican in Missouri history elected to two consecutive terms.
In 1984, his opponent was the Democratic Lieutenant Governor Ken Rothman. The campaign was so negative on both sides that a reporter described the contest as "two alley cats [scrapping] over truth in advertising". In his campaign ads, Ashcroft showed the contrast between his rural base and the urban supporters of his opponent from St. Louis. Democrats did not close ranks on primary night. The defeated candidate, Mel Carnahan, endorsed Rothman. In the end, Ashcroft won 57 percent of the vote and carried 106 counties—then the largest Republican gubernatorial victory in Missouri history.
In 1988, Ashcroft won by a larger margin over his Democratic opponent, Betty Cooper Hearnes, the wife of the former governor Warren E. Hearnes. Ashcroft received 64 percent of the vote in the general election—the largest landslide for governor in Missouri history since the U.S. Civil War.
During his second term, Ashcroft served as chairman of the National Governors Association (1991–92).
U.S. Senator from Missouri (1995–2001)
In 1994, Ashcroft was elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri, again succeeding John Danforth, who retired from the position. Ashcroft won 59.8% of the vote against Democratic Congressman Alan Wheat. As Senator: He opposed the Clinton Administration's Clipper encryption restrictions, arguing in favor of the individual's right to encrypt messages and export encryption software. In 1999, as chair of the Senate's subcommittee on patents, he helped extend patents for several drugs, notably the allergy medication Claritin, to prevent the marketing of less-expensive generics. On March 30, 2000, with Senator Russ Feingold, Ashcroft convened the only Senate hearing on racial profiling. He said the practice was unconstitutional and that he supported legislation requiring police to keep statistics on their actions.
In 1998, Ashcroft briefly considered running for U.S. president, but, on January 5, 1999, he decided that he would seek re-election to his Senate seat in the 2000 election and not run for president.
In the Republican primary, Ashcroft defeated Marc Perkel. In the general election, Ashcroft faced a challenge from Governor Mel Carnahan.
In the midst of a tight race, Carnahan died in an airplane crash three weeks prior to the election. Ashcroft suspended all campaigning after the plane crash. Because of Missouri state election laws and the short time to election, Carnahan's name remained on the ballot. Lieutenant Governor Roger B. Wilson became governor upon Carnahan's death. Wilson said that should Carnahan be elected, he would appoint his widow, Jean Carnahan, to serve in her husband's place. Mrs. Carnahan stated that, in accordance with her late husband's goal, she would serve in the Senate if voters elected his name. Following these developments, Ashcroft resumed campaigning.
Carnahan won the election 51% to 49%. No politician had ever posthumously won election to the U.S. Senate, although voters had on at least three occasions chosen deceased candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives. Ashcroft remains the first and so far only U.S. Senator to have been defeated for re-election by a deceased person.
United States Attorney General
In December 2000, following his Senatorial defeat, Ashcroft was chosen for the position of U.S. attorney general by president-elect George W. Bush. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 58 to 42, with most Democratic senators voting against him, citing his prior opposition to using busing to achieve school desegregation and opposition to abortion. At the time of his appointment, he was known to be a member of the Federalist Society.
Before beginning his terms as Governor and Senator, Ashcroft had his father anoint him with oil to mirror the biblical practice for recognizing kings. As his father died by 2001, Ashcroft had U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, his former co-worker in the Attorney General Office of Missouri, perform this anointment and administer his oath of office.
In May 2001, the FBI revealed that they had misplaced thousands of documents related to the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. Ashcroft granted a 30-day stay of execution for Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the bombing.
In July 2001, Ashcroft began flying exclusively by private jet. When questioned about this decision, the Justice Department explained that this course of action had been recommended based on a "threat assessment" made by the FBI. Neither the Bureau, nor the Justice Department would identify the specific nature of the threat, who made it, or when it happened. The CIA were unaware of any specific threats against Cabinet members. At the time, Ashcroft was the only Cabinet appointee who traveled on a private jet, excluding the special cases of Interior and Energy who have responsibilities which require chartered jets.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Ashcroft was a key administration supporter of passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. One of its provisions, Section 215, allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to apply for an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to require production of "any tangible thing" for an investigation. This provision was criticized by citizen and professional groups concerned about violations of privacy. Ashcroft referred to the American Library Association's opposition to Section 215 as "hysteria" in two separate speeches given in September 2003. While Attorney General, Ashcroft consistently denied that the FBI or any other law enforcement agency had used the Patriot Act to obtain library circulation records or those of retail sales. According to the sworn testimony of two FBI agents interviewed by the 9/11 Commission, he ignored warnings of an imminent al-Qaida attack.
In January 2002, the partially nude female statue of the Spirit of Justice in the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, where Ashcroft held press conferences, was covered with blue curtains. Department officials long insisted that the curtains were put up to improve the room's use as a television backdrop and that Ashcroft had nothing to do with it. Ashcroft's successor, Alberto Gonzales, removed the curtains in June 2005. Ashcroft also held daily prayer meetings.