Burger, Wolfin, Hovis look toward November and beyond after their Republican nominations

Area state legislators are already looking ahead after winning Republican nominations in the primary election Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Jamie Burger

District 148 state Rep. Jamie Burger won the Republican nomination for the District 27 Senate seat in the election. The race was among Burger, Jacob Turner and Chris Dinkins, with Burgwr pulling out the victory with 40.9%. Turner was right behind at 37.2%. Dinkins finished at 21.9%.

Burger had a dominant win in Scott County, which propelled him ahead, with 4,384 votes, while Turner won Madison, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Perry counties, and Dinkins won Iron and Reynolds counties. Burger said he did not realized Turner had the lead at one point since he got the Scott County returns before anyone else.

“I was getting some text messages from people saying that I was behind, but I didn't know where that was coming from,” Burger said. “As far as I was concerned, I was way up, and he was chipping away at my lead. But Jacob Turner called me that night when we were giving our watch party, very respectful. He's a very good guy. Saw him several times on the campaign trail.”

Burger said he truly respects Turner and considers him a friend.

Burger said he was humbled by the number of people who worked for his campaign. He said he’s looking forward to representing the people in the seven counties who voted for him and the ones who didn’t.

He said going forward, he’s going to have conversations with residents to get “attuned” to their needs.

No opposing candidates are running for the District 27 state Senate seat in the November general election.

Barry Hovis

District 146 state Rep. Barry Hovis was nominated to continue his service in the House of Representatives. In the primary election, Hovis won 53.93% of the ballots cast with 4,554 votes over his opponent Lucas Green, who had 46.07% with 3,890 votes in Cape Girardeau County.

Hovis said he was “honored” to be reelected to serve his last term as the district’s representative.

“I hope to continue to serve all as effectively as we can from this area. And just would continue to tell people, if you have a concern or something that's important, please reach out and let me know,” Hovis said.

He said that now going into his “senior status” as a representative he hopes to finish up more bills.

“I hope to finish up some of the bills I filed that could affect, like the Fruitland sewer water district. I've been working on some law enforcement bills. Truth-in-sentencing is one I've worked on for the last three years,” Hovis said.

Hovis also said he is going to bring the interim committee on illegal immigrant crime to Cape Girardeau for a meeting in September. He said people can actually come and see a live committee meeting.

“There'll be probably 20 reps there, depending on how many can come down, and we'll have a committee meeting on illegal immigrant crime,” Hovis said.

Hovis does not have an opponent in the general election in November.

Bryant Wolfin

Wolfin won the Republican nomination for the District 145 state House of Representatives seat, which is currently being held by Rick Francis, who could not run again because of term limits. Wolfin won the race with 54.2%, 3,598 votes, against Dave Soto, who had 45.8%, 3,043 votes, between Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties.

Wolfin won Ste. Genevieve County, while Soto won Perry County.

Wolfin said he was grateful for the support he received after he won the nomination Aug. 6. He said while there were highs and lows, “It makes it all worth it.”

"Just the amount of phone calls and texts and just the outpouring of love overall that we received afterwards, it's very surreal,” Wolfin said.

He said he thought his campaign went well, noting there was a strategy from the beginning.

Wolfin said he’s not the best at asking for money and he didn’t want to take out a bunch of political action committee money or “lobbyist money". He said he self-financed the campaign, while also doing some raffles.

Wolfin said his goal and priority is gaining more knowledge about the district’s needs.

“Continue to meet with our district's leaders, elected officials, and make sure that we're under the current understanding of just the general needs of the counties,” he said.

Wolfin also does not have an opponent in the upcoming general election.