Republicans do well in most of Mid-Missouri | Jefferson City News Tribune

Members of U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer's staff constantly refresh their web browsers to see how the Republican Party is doing in the national election at the Republican watch party Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016 at the Millbottom in Jefferson City.

As the unofficial returns continued being reported, Republicans were doing well in Mid-Missouri - but Democrats generally were winning in Boone County.

In Mid-Missouri, in the tussle of presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump was capturing thousands more votes than Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Here are other results for the major races:

In the race for governor, Attorney General Chris Koster conceded Tuesday night to Republican former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens.

Incumbent Roy Blunt was winning his re-election bid for the U.S. Senate over Democrat Secretary of State Jason Kander.

And University of Missouri law professor Josh Hawley defeated former Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley.

the Benjamin Black novel Holy Orders.

In Cole County's unofficial vote totals, Trump won 24,610 votes to Clinton's 10,907, or 65.4 percent to 29 percent.

Blunt, a former Missouri secretary of state, beat current Secretary Kander, 21,932 to 14,212, or 58.5 percent to 38.9 percent.

Greitens carried Cole County by a 20,864 votes to 15,802 votes margin, or 55.5 percent to 42.1 percent, of the unofficial vote totals.

And Hawley won 23,701 votes to Hensley's 13,216, or 64.1 percent to 35.8 percent.

Final, unofficial results from other counties were not available at press time.

Susan Cook, Cole County's Democratic Committee chair, said she hopes the elected leaders can overcome all the negative campaigning.

"I hope we wake up (today) and our country starts the process of coming back together, because it's been a very difficult election season," she said. "I think it's idealistic to believe that, but I think it's possible."

On the other side of the political aisle, Republican leader Pat Thomas struck a harmonious chord at the districtwide victory party hosted by landslide victor U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth. "We had about as harmful and hurtful a primary as you can imagine," Thomas said.

"The primary featured numerous rugged battles, the meanest of which were those for governor and attorney general. We may have had the harshest and worst primary in history, and yet we have apparently come back to run the table on the Democrats in this general election," Thomas said. She is a Jefferson Citian who is secretary of the Missouri Republican Party, chief of staff to Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, and was a delegate to this year's GOP national convention in Cleveland.

"Cole County has demonstrated that people can agree to disagree and put the nasty primaries behind them and work for a platform that is relevant to people's lives right here," Thomas said.

Thomas also said the Tuesday night Republican sweep locally and throughout Luetkemeyer's congressional district reflects the unity of voters behind leaders like Luetkemeyer and Munzlinger. "We even picked up more local and county seats Tuesday night," she said. "We've moved on beyond the awful suicide of (former auditor) Tom Schweich and rebuilt the state party. We may not have much cash flow, but we don't have the bills we had under our previous party leadership."

For his part, Luetkemeyer said he was again humbled by the voters' decision to support him by such huge margins. At press time, he was winning by 68.652 percent districtwide and by 71.55 percent in Cole County - a 17,000-vote margin that represented the largest single spread recorded by any of the candidates on the local ballots.

A former state representative and state tourism director, Luetkemeyer is a farmer-stockman, insurance agent and banker from one of the smallest municipalities in his congressional district.

He drove his family home Tuesday night after hosting the lively party at the Millbottom event center and was planning on collecting campaign signs Wednesday.

"I'm not going to try to take them all down, not by myself, not any more," Luetkemeyer said. "I've got offices in Washington (Missouri) and Wentzville now, as well as in Jefferson City, and we've really connected with the people throughout this district. I'm also proud that the local candidates I have supported have won throughout the district. It tells me I'm doing the right thing in Washington."

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