For much of last year, Leonard Steinman II, of Jefferson City, said he was going to run for U.S. president.
However, Tuesday morning, he filed instead as a candidate for Missouri governor, running as a Democrat.
"Two things," he said, explaining his change of races. "My legs gave up on me.
"And I wasn't going to fight a situation where my sister, in November, married her girlfriend."
Steinman acknowledged his sister's same-sex marriage "is a liability in a state race, but it's not near as bad as in the 50 states."
He was in line before Attorney General Chris Koster, considered by many as the Democrat Party's front-runner for governor.
Because he drew a lower number in the lottery used to determine the ballot order for those who filed on the first day, Steinman will be listed first on the ballot among all the Democratic governor candidates.
After the first day of filing, only Steinman and Koster were in the Democratic governor's race.
He believes he has a realistic chance of winning the office "because I'm going to go to the people and not the party."
Steinman in the past has run for office as a Democrat and as a Republican.
He said Missouri law doesn't have a place for independents and, if he tried running as a write-in candidate, his name wouldn't be on the ballot, "so nobody believes you're running."
He said he chose the Democratic race "because Koster's got nobody running against him, and I don't like what he did with Ferguson."
Steinman thinks Koster, as attorney general, should have been more involved in Ferguson after the August 2014 killing of Michael Brown.
"We would not have "Black Lives Matter' the way it is today" if Koster had been more involved with the Ferguson situation, Steinman explained. "They should have sent somebody down there to ease the pain.
"There was a lot of pain down there."
What does he hope to accomplish, if elected Missouri's next governor?
"Many, many, many things for everybody in Missouri," Steinman said.