Hawley overtakes incumbent McCaskill

Republican Josh Hawley handily defeated two-term, Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in Missouri's U.S. Senate race Tuesday. His victory helped the GOP maintain control of the Senate.

Republicans were able to expand their narrow Senate majority in the midterm elections even as Democrats took control of the House for the first time in eight years.

The return of Democrats to power in the House was viewed by many political observers as a referendum on President Donald Trump's tumultuous first two years in office.

On the Senate side, Republicans flipped a number of seats on Tuesday, including wins by Rep. Kevin Cramer over Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, and Mike Braun over Joe Donnelly in Indiana.

Trump campaigned heavily for Republican members of Congress, including Hawley. He made seven visits to the state on Hawley's behalf, including an election eve rally Monday at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Polls showed McCaskill and Hawley in virtually a dead heat leading up to Election Day.

Hawley was the only statewide candidate in Missouri to receive more votes than Trump in 2016, when he was elected attorney general. He pledged during that campaign not to climb political ladders, but within months of taking office he announced his candidacy for Senate.

Once considered a bellwether state, Missouri has become a reliably red state with Republicans in control of the state Legislature and almost every statewide office.

In seeking a third term, McCaskill presented herself as a moderate and someone who is willing to work across the political aisle.

But Hawley in campaigns ads and on the stump portrayed McCaskill as a liberal Democrat and compared her to Hillary Clinton.

With nearly 70 percent of 3,256 precincts reporting statewide, Hawley, Missouri's attorney general, had garnered 968,837 votes to 664,340 for McCaskill, a margin of 57.4 percent to 39.3 percent.

Independent candidate Craig O'Dear received nearly 1.5 percent of the vote Libertarian Japheth Campbell had nearly 1.2 percent of the vote while Green Party candidate Jo Crain collected less than 1 percent.

Democrats needed to pick up two dozen seats on Tuesday to seize the House majority and two seats to control the Senate where Republicans began the day a slim 51-49 majority.

All 435 seats in the U.S. House were up for re-election, although fewer than 90 were considered competitive. Thirty-five Senate seats were in play.

Voter turnout was heavy in many places.

Voters across the country faced hourslong lines in some, malfunctioning voting equipment and unexpectedly closed polling places.

Demographic divides colored the political landscape in different ways, The Associated Press reported.

Going into Election Day, Democrats were optimistic about the House, a sprawling battlefield set largely in America's suburbs where more educated and affluent voters in both parties have soured on Trump's turbulent presidency, despite the strength of the national economy.

Democrats faced a difficult challenge in the Senate, where they were almost exclusively on defense in rural states where Trump remains popular, such as Missouri, North Dakota and Indiana.

State auditor race

Incumbent Democrat Nicole Galloway appeared headed for defeat. With nearly 70 percent of the precincts reporting as of press time, Republican challenger Saundra McDowell was winning, 50 percent to 45 percent, or a margin of less than 83,000 votes.

Libertarian Sean O'Toole collected more than 2 percent of the vote as did Constitution Party candidate Jacob Luetkemeyer. Green Party candidate Don Fix had fewer than 1 percent of the votes.

Galloway took office as state auditor in April 2015. She previously was Boone County treasurer. She is a certified fraud examiner and certified public accountant.

McDowell worked in the Secretary of State's Office as director of Enforcement for the Securities Division.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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