A view of the Missouri Senate chamber from the visitors gallery (photo courtesy of the Missouri Senate).
Every incumbent Missouri senator challenged in Tuesday’s primaries won renomination, but Republican voters rejected sitting House members in five districts.
In the Senate primaries, a big money advantage generally, but not in every case, carried the day. One notable exception was in the 31st District of western Missouri, where incumbent state Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville defeated two challengers with a plurality of the votes.
Brattin took 47% of the vote against state Reps. Mike Haffner of Pleasant Hill and Dan Houx of Warrensburg. Houx spent almost $600,000 from his campaign and joint fundraising PAC, roughly $100,000 more than Brattin and Haffner combined.
“I am incredibly grateful for the dedication and love that was poured into this campaign from all our supporters,” Brattin said in a news release.
Primaries will test incumbents in year of historic turnover for Missouri Senate
With the primary results, Republicans are assured of having 16 seats of 34 seats in the Senate – 14 incumbents not on the ballot plus two districts where the primary winner is unopposed – while Democrats are assured of four – three incumbents plus state Sen. Angela Mosley of Florissant, who held off the challenge from state Rep. Chantelle Nickson-Clark in the 13th District in a battle between well-established St. Louis Democratic factions.
Democrats hope to pick up as many as three seats , which would give the Senate a 21-13 Republican majority.
In the House, unopposed Republicans are assured of 28 seats in the 163-member chamber, while Democrats have 18 seats where their nominee is unopposed. There are also two Republican districts and four Democratic districts where the nominee faces only minor party competition in November.
Democrats hope to pick up at least three seats from the current 111-52 GOP majority, which would break the two-thirds supermajority in place for more than a decade.
Along with Brattin and Mosley, Democratic state Sen. Barbara Washington defeated her challenger, former state Rep. Brandon Ellington, in the 9th District, which covers the east side of Kansas City and Raytown. Washington won about 79% of the vote and will face Republican Derron Black in November in a district that generally votes 80% Democratic.
And in southwest Missouri, Republican state Sen. Mike Moon of Ash Grove easily turned back the challenge from business owner Susan Haralson of Ozark in the 29th District, taking 77% of the vote. Haralson had made an issue of Moon’s focus on social issues and counted on a redrawn district to have a chance.
The winner will face Ron Monnig, a Democrat from Eagle Rock, in a district where former President Donald Trump took 77.5% of the vote in 2020.
The Republican House incumbents who were defeated Tuesday are state Reps. Chris Sander of Lone Jack, a two-term lawmaker who lost the 33rd District to Carolyn Caton; Tony Lovasco of O’Fallon, a three-term lawmaker who lost the 64th District to Deanna Self; Kyle Marquart of Washington, Missouri, a first term lawmaker who lost the 109th District in Franklin County to the man he beat in 2022 to take the seat, John Simmons, also of Washington; Gary Bonacker of House Springs in Jefferson County, a first-term representative who lost the 111th District to Cecelie Williams of Dittmer; and Lisa Thomas, a two-term member from Lake Ozark who lost to Jeff Vernetti of Camdenton.
Caton and Williams will be unopposed in November.
Sander, one of the only openly gay Republicans in the Missouri House, last year became the target of an effort to censure him by some members of the Jackson County Republican Party after he introduced legislation to repeal the portion of the state constitution that says the only valid marriages are “between a man and a woman.”
During the campaign, Caton criticized Sander for voting against bills to ban gender transition medical procedures for transgender minors and prohibit transgender athletes from competing in school sports according to their gender identity.
“ I am the one true conservative in this race, unlike my opponent I have never questioned being a republican,” Caton wrote in one social media post.
The two Senate districts where the primary winner faces no opposition are the 27th District in southeast Missouri and the 33rd District in southern Missouri.
In the 27th, an open seat because incumbent state Sen. Holly Rehder ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor, state Rep. Jamie Burger of Benton defeated Jacob Turner of Jackson, who was making his second bid for office, and state Rep. Chris Dinkins of Lesterville, who had won four terms in the House.
In the 33rd District, open because of term limits, state Rep. Brad Hudson of Cape Fair defeated state Rep. Travis Smith of Dora.
Burger’s campaign and PAC spent almost two times the combined spending of his opponents, but Hudson bucked the trend, spending less than Smith but not falling as far behind in the cash chase as the candidates facing Burger.
In other contested primaries, House Speaker Pro Tem Mike Henderson of Bonne Terre defeated state Rep. Cyndi Buchheit-Courtway in the 3rd District, open because incumbent Sen. Elaine Gannon declined to run again.
“I want to thank Rep. Cyndi Buchheit-Courtway for her service to this community and for running a spirited, positive campaign,” Henderson said in a news release after his victory.
Doug Halbert of Hematite is the Democratic candidate in a district that went about 69% for Trump in 2020.
The other districts where the better-funded candidates lost are the 11th District of Jackson County and the 23rd District in St. Charles County.
In the 11th District, Joe Nicola of Grain Valley, who has run for Congress and Senate in the past, defeated State Rep. Aaron McMullen of Independence and David Martin of Kansas City.
McMullen spent more than $500,000 from his campaign committee and joint fundraising PAC, while Nicola spent about $75,000.
He’ll face State Rep. Robert Sauls, a Democrat from Independence, who was unopposed in the primary and whose most recent reports showed he had just under $160,000 in his campaign fund and almost $260,000 in his Independence Leadership PAC.
In the 23rd District – home to defeated gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Bill Eigel – three-term state Rep. Adam Shnelting of St. Charles spent about $240,000 from his campaign committee and joint fundraising PAC to defeat State Rep. Phil Christofanelli of St. Peters, who spent more than $1 million, Dan O’Connell of St. Peters and Rich Chrismer of St. Peters, a former St. Charles County clerk.
The Democratic candidate is Matt Williams of St. Charles, a first-time candidate.
The 23rd District, which is considered competitive based on past voting, is one of the six Democrats must win to meet their goal of 13 seats in the upper chamber.
The 15th District in St. Louis County, open due to term limits, is another district targeted by Democrats. Former state Rep. David Gregory of Chesterfield, who lost a 2022 primary for state auditor, prevailed in a three-way contest against Mark Harder, elected three times to the St. Louis County Council, Jim Bowlin, a two-term mayor of Wildwood.
Gregory spent about $450,000 on the race, almost double the combined spending by Harder and Bowlin. He will face attorney Joe Pereles, who was unopposed and has amassed a campaign fund of almost $650,000.
The bigger spender won in one of two open seat districts with primaries but the final primary fundraising reports will show who spent more in the other.
In the 21st District of northwest Missouri, two-term state Rep. Kurtis Gregory of Marshall spent almost $700,000 from his campaign committee and joint fundraising PAC to defeat three-term state Rep. Doug Richey of Excelsior Springs, who spent about $375,000. Jim Bates of Liberty is the Democratic candidate in the district that is rated 63% Republican based on voting history.
In the 7th District in Kansas City, state Rep. Patty Lewis scored a 2-1 victory over Pat Contreras, the Democratic nominee for state treasurer in 2016.
The most recent fundraising reports show Lewis had a slight edge in total spending, $292,000 to $267,000.
Joey LaSalle is the Republican candidate in the district, which is heavily Democratic.
This article has been corrected to show five incumbent Republican House members were defeated and that it was Jacob Turner’s second bid for public office.
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