When Mike Kehoe owned the local Ford-Lincoln dealership, his advertising slogan was, "Mid-Missouri loves a Mike Kehoe deal."
Voters apparently like the "deal" well enough to give the incumbent a second four-year term in the Missouri Senate.
In Tuesday's unofficial election results, Kehoe won the majority of votes in all seven counties covered by the Senate's 6th District.
In Cole County, Kehoe, a Republican, got 17,154 votes (75.45 percent of the total 22,644 votes cast in the county), to Democrat Mollie Kristen Freebairn's 5,490 votes (24.13 percent).
Cole County is the largest of the district's seven counties. The others are Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Maries, Gasconade and Osage counties.
Adding in the totals from the five other counties that reported results Tuesday night, Kehoe received a total of 36,978 votes, or 78.984 percent of the total 46,817 votes, to Freebairn's 9,839 votes, or 21.016 percent.
Mid-Missouri also will gain another Republican state senator.
State Rep. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, beat Rep. Ed Schieffer, D-Troy, for the vacant 10th District seat that includes Callaway and five other eastern Missouri counties.
Riddle captured 22,862 votes, or 67.577 percent of the total 42,710 votes cast, to Schieffer's 13,848 votes, or 32.423 percent.
For the last two years, the district had been served by Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, who received the territory in redistricting.
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