Kehoe was born in Bree, County Wexford, in 1973. The son of Myles and Bernadette Kehoe, his father was a farmer and political activist.[3][4] He was educated at St. Mary's CBS, Enniscorthy, and Kildalton Agricultural College, County Kilkenny.[2] Kehoe is also a farmer.[1] He is married to Brigid O'Connor, of Taghmon, and the couple have three children.[3]
On 6 May 2016, he was appointed as Minister of State to the same departments by the new minority government of Fine Gael and Independents led by Enda Kenny. He did not continue as Government Chief Whip, but continued to attend government meetings, with increased duties as Minister of State where Kenny assigned himself as Minister for Defence.[9][10] On 14 June 2017, he was appointed as Minister of State to the same departments by the new minority government of Fine Gael and Independents led by Leo Varadkar, where Varadkar similarly assigned himself as Minister for Defence.[11][12]
During his term as Minister of State for Defence, Kehoe was the subject of controversy for comments he made about Naval Service vessels being docked,[13] with two former Irish Naval Service officers calling on him to resign and stating he "smacks of a person who doesn't know how the military operates".[14] Kehoe's home was targeted by protesters in April 2019.[15]
During the 2020 general election, Kehoe's office was targeted by protestors from the Air Corps who encouraged voters to not give him any preference votes.[16] He won 8.4% of the first preference votes, and was re-elected on the 11th count without reaching the quota.[17][18]