Republicans won both open seats in the Missouri legislature in Tuesday’s special election. Voters elected Rep. Sandy Crawford from Buffalo, Missouri, to a state Senate seat representing a district north of Springfield. Meanwhile Central Missouri voters elected Sara Walsh to the state House during Tuesday elections.
Crawford assumed the set previously held by Republican Mike Parson, who was elected lieutenant governor in 2016. Walsh will occupy the seat formerly held by Republican Caleb Jones who left the House to become deputy chief of staff for Gov. Eric Greitens. Walsh was challenged by attorney Michela Skelton, a cousin of the late Ike Skelton whose name still resonates in Central Missouri.
The Kansas City Star was not entirely mum on the election but nearly so. Editors ran an AP piece of fewer than 100 words on the two elections. One suspects that if Republicans had lost either of the two seats, it would have been front page news. Had Republicans lost both, it would have been national news.
Said Austin Stukins, Executive Director of the Missouri Republican Party and a man not given to understatement, “The message from Missouri voters is clear—-the liberal agenda advanced by Claire McCaskill and the Missouri Democrat Party is dead-on-arrival in our state, and our special election sweep is just a preview of the epic defeat McCaskill will endure in 2018.”
