Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder campaigned Saturday at the Missouri GOP’s Lincoln Days event in Kansas City. (PoliticMo Photo)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time as an incumbent office holder, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has a legitimate primary opponent for the Republican party nomination.

Kinder, who was elected statewide in 2004, is being challenged by state Sen. Brad Lager, a Marryville Republican who announced his campaign in November before Kinder announced his reelection campaign.

Saturday, during the Missouri Republican Party’s state committee meeting at Lincoln Days, Kinder, who opted to run for reelection instead of governor earlier this year, laid out his case for a third term.

“This is not so much about me, it never has been,” Kinder said in a short speech to the committee. “It’s a team effort, our common conservative cause.”

“In that battle, I’ve always been in that shoulder to shoulder with you,” he added.

Lager, elected to the Senate in 2006 after serving four years in the Missouri House, told the committee he feels it is important that there are new faces in state leadership.

“If we’re going to turn the tide, it’s not about rearranging the chairs,” Lager said. “It’s going to take new leaders.”

Kinder, in an interview later in the day, said on issues ranging from abortion, school choice, religious rights, and taxes, he believes he has a record of “proven results” to take to voters on the campaign trail.

“If you go over the conservative issues of the last 15 years, you find Kinder’s stamp on every one of them,” he said.

Is he upset that he is being challenged from someone in his own party?

“It’s a free country, he can do whatever he wants to,” Kinder said. “I’m a competitor, and I’m suited up to compete. Chinstrap on and ready to roll.”