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Election Night 2016 Winners

The day after the election, we sat down and looked at some of the implications of the night, and whose stock is rising in Missouri politics. You’ll notice a Republican sweep includes a lot of Republicans winning more than just an office.

  • Eric Greitens.

The man of the hour. He changed Missouri politics and while he may have ridden a wave Tuesday night, it doesn’t take away from an amazing campaign. He is now set up to put his signature on a huge list of accomplishments that Republicans have dreamed of achieving. Victory has a way of healing all, and the Governor-elect and his team have every reason to be on cloud nine.

  • Down-ballot Republican statewides.

They finally figured it out. Eric Schmitt, Jay Ashcroft, Mike Parson, and Josh Hawley completed the sweep and may have finally exorcised the demons of 1992. Now they have a stocked bench, and look to dominate statewide politics for a generation. Major credit to John Hancock chairing MRP in an era of no contribution limits and keeping the peace overseeing a clean sweep.

  • Business Groups.

Oh to be Dan Mehan today. Everything business groups have wanted is on the cusp of happening. Right-to-work, paycheck protection, even tort reform seem to be just a few months and a couple PQs away. They are probably the biggest winners of the Show Me Trump wave.

  • HRCC…again.

They did it again. We were thinking 114 or 115, but 117 is amazing. They won in the bootheel, they established a dominance in JeffCo, they held Boone County, and finally ended the seesaw in the 94th in South St. Louis County. They lost one in Clay County, but took the 70th in St. Louis County. Republicans now represent Bridgeton – they literally represent the St. Louis Mills Mall. Amazing credit to Robert Knodell, Casey Burns, and their team.

  • Senate Republicans.

Many felt it a foregone conclusion that the Republicans were destined to lose at least one seat, but nope. They held the 19th with now Senator Rowden, and will have, for four years, regulated Senate Democrats to only St. Louis and Jackson County.

  • Senator-elect Caleb Rowden.

The conventional wisdom (except for of course the tip sheet) had him losing. Some blamed Donald Trump, others blamed Sen. Kurt Schaefer, others said Rep. Stephen Webber was just too strong. Nope. Rowden and his Boone County politics wiz Jon Ratliff pulled it off again. It’s doubtful that University of Missouri professors voted for him, but their budget is very fortunate that Rowden won.

  • Senator-elect John Rizzo.

His own party came at him in the primary, then the mighty Senate Republicans came at him the last week of the election, and he pulled through. His win put to rest the voting controversy of his house race, and he is set to be a senator beholden to no one but Eastern Jackson County, which by the way is not Kansas City.

  • Missouri Democrats.

I know, but hear me out. They are on the brink of not being a viable opposition party, but so were the Republicans in 1992. We may have been heading towards being Kansas but for President-elect Donald J. Trump. Republicans hold the keys to everything and if Missouri’s long stagnate economy doesn’t improve, then in 2018 you could see the backlash during the cycle with the most open House seats. If Trump doesn’t perform, look for Democrats like Sen. Jill Schupp to cruise to reelection, and Democrats Rep. Jon Carpenter to be leading Senate contenders in 2020.

  • Early voting.

Look the key to victory for Republicans were rural voters showing up. The conventional wisdom was early voting helped Democrats, but the 2016 numbers do not show that.

  • Senator Blunt.

Was in the awful spot of being the incumbent during a change election. The top of the ticket was the ultimate outsider, and he had a well-funded and talented opponent. However, as Jason Kander pointed out Roy Blunt has been on the ballot for a long time, but as Missourians pointed out there is a reason they have been voting for him for a long time. Missouri’s statesman has six more years to be the face of our state in the U.S. Senate.  

  • Remington Research Group.

We heard the cat calls when we used them. When our publisher was on KMOX, we got your tweets and emails. They heard it when others criticized them for their national polls. But when the votes were counted no one was better. Not just in Missouri, or Missourah, but nationwide. Hat tip to Titus Bond and Jeff Roe.

  • NRA, Farm Bureau, Missouri Right to Life.

They had huge wins up and down the ballot, but the one race where they weren’t with the republican got a lot of attention. However, Eric Greitens campaigned in support of their issues, and does anyone honestly think this legislature is going to have any problem getting 18 and 82 for gun bills or abortion bills? I would submit that they have clearly demonstrated that they can 23 and 109 for them already, and at last check they do a little bit of farming in Iowa….

  • Speaker Pro Tem-elect Elijah Haahr.

Rep. Elijah Haahr came through a hard-fought three-way fight for the #2 position in the House, and is now the leader to become speaker-elect in a year.

  • Victory Enterprises.

This firm had a great cycle representing several winners from Greitens, Blunt, Ashcroft, Schmitt, and the list goes on. They have demonstrated that they understand the new Missouri republican party, and that is the group who has all the stroke in state politics now.

  • Realtors Association.

It was a complicated proposal, and many predicted Amendment 4 would fail, but they kept at it and won, bigly.

  • Small tobacco.

You were on this from the jump. We have never seen a lawyer create so much bad press through the courts than Mr. Hatfield did on Amendment 3. Mention allocable share and these guys will cut you.

  • Lawyers.

Yes now the the consultants for Voter ID and contribution limits have been paid, our barrister friends will be getting paid trying to have them thrown out.

  • Almost Jason Kander.

He has commanded all of the respect in the world for his campaign that went from a collective “eh” amongst Missouri politicos to one of the best campaigns in the nation. Then his post-mortem on the election had a weird line that seems to criticize moderates in his party. Many have thought of him as a dream Democratic candidate should Senator McCaskill choose not to seek reelection, but that line raises eye brows. Kander caught lightning in a bottle with his talent, his lack of Washington experience, and a change election. He will likely need those moderates to win if he chooses to run again.

  • A generation of Republican staffers.

Hey, it’s hard to develop and keep political talent when you have only been in the Governor’s office 4 of 24 years. If you want to see the 2027-2028 Missouri General Assembly look at the legion of Republicans who will be serving their state in the executive branch in 2017.

  • The original Greitens supporters.

Jeff Layman, Rep. Jay Barnes, former Sen. John Lamping, Rep. Lyndall Fraker, and there were a few others there at the beginning, but not many. These people were on the team when it wasn’t always popular, but I’d bet it is a pretty popular place today.

  • The Steelmans, Dohrman to David.

Once upon a time Missouri republicans were in the same spot Missouri democrats are today. Dohrman Steelman, former a state representative and MRP chair, began building a conservative party that has grown to today’s dominance. His son David Steelman along his wife Sarah Steelman are now the first family of the Missouri Republican Party. They were Greitens’ biggest and most high profile supporters, and are the most influential family in Missouri politics. It might be wise career advice for an ambitious park ranger to put a little polish on the Dohrman L. Steelman Lodge at Montauk State Park. 

  • Missouri Times election night team.

Hey, we got the tweets, we got your texts, and your emails that we were wrong with our election night projections, but we were 90 percent of the time 1st and 100 percent of the time right. A lot of people helped us but the credit goes to Rachael Herndon Dunn, Travis Zimpfer, and Benjamin Peters.