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House GOP claims victory after filing deadline

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) called the 2016 candidate filing deadline another sign of their party’s increasing dominance in Missouri.

Republicans will run 44 more candidates this cycle than the Democrats, and 36 more Republicans are running unopposed than Democrats.

“With each passing election cycle, Missouri becomes an increasingly Republican state,” said a statement from HRCC. “The rising tide of the Republican Party in Missouri… persuaded more Republican potential candidates to make the sacrifices it takes to run, bringing more candidates to the GOP side of the ledger. On the other side, Democrats clearly struggled to field candidates in many parts of the state.”

The GOP said this was a sign that their values and efforts in the House resonate more with Missourians than those of the Democrats, especially their efforts to reduce spending and cut taxes.

They also said its a sign that the Republicans outworked Democrats to field candidates in the election.

“Republicans simply outworked Democrats and enlisted more and better quality candidates, just as Republicans will outwork, outraise, outperform Democrats in the elections this November,” they said.

Overall, 176 Republicans filed compared to 132 Democrats. In 66 races, Republicans are unopposed while 30 Democrats are unopposed.

The House GOP also said it was running 6 of their unopposed candidates in districts where registered Democrats make up more than 50% of the electorate.

Republicans have used similar filing advantages to gain seats in the House in the last three elections, adding 28 seats since 2010.

However, more Democrats filed to run this year than they did in the last cycle. That hasn’t happened in the last 5 elections, while the number of Republican candidates filing dropped for the third straight cycle.