Incumbent Republican Gov. Mike Parson won election to a full term as governor.
As of approximately 11 p.m. Tuesday, Parson had won more than 60.9 percent of the votes tallied statewide in the race, with 2,134 of 3,692 precincts reporting, according to unofficial results from the Missouri Secretary of State's Office.
Parson said Tuesday night to supporters in Springfield: "This election was about preserving freedom, capitalism and the rule of law."
He added that people believe in "common sense," don't like to be told what to do by government, and that it's "our time" to protect the Constitution and the American dream.
Parson - a cattle farmer, U.S. Army veteran and former Polk County sheriff, state representative and state senator - was elected lieutenant governor in November 2016, winning almost 52.8 percent of the more than 2.76 million votes cast for that race at the time.
He became governor in June 2018 following the resignation of former Gov. Eric Greitens and ran this year for a full term.
Parson is a conservative who has favored what he calls a "balanced approach" to the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing businesses and schools to operate while imploring Missourians to act responsibly to slow the spread of the virus. But Missouri is among several Midwestern states that have seen big increases in confirmed cases and hospitalizations, which Parson's principal rival in the race, Democratic State Auditor Nicole Galloway, has blamed on a "failure of leadership."
As of approximately 11 p.m., Galloway had won more than 36.7 percent of the votes tallied statewide in the race.
Galloway said Tuesday night in Columbia that while the Parson and she have their differences, "I respect the service he has provided Missourians throughout his career."
"We all must come together to defeat the virus" she said, adding that the state must also expand Medicaid and be a place where children can thrive.
"While this campaign is over, our work continues," to ensure government works for working families, she added.
Galloway, a certified public accountant, was appointed to be the state auditor in 2015 following the death of the previous elected auditor. She was elected to the position in November 2018, winning more than 50.4 percent of the nearly 2.4 million votes cast for that race at the time.
She said Tuesday night she would continue in her role as state auditor: "I'm not going anywhere, Missouri."
Parson and his allies warned that Galloway was soft on crime and cited support she received from racial justice activists who have called for defunding the police. Galloway said she did not support defunding police but favored providing more money for things such as education and mental health services that would address systemic problems.
Galloway also called for "common sense" gun laws, while Parson strongly opposes limits on guns. Missouri gun laws are among the most lenient in the U.S.
In Cole County this year, according to the final unofficial results released by local election officials Tuesday, Parson won 67.88 percent of the 39,582 votes cast in the governor's race.
In November 2016 in Cole County, Parson won 57.55 percent of the 37,181 votes locally cast in that race at the time.
Galloway this year in Cole County won 29.61 percent of the vote.
In November 2018 in Cole County, Galloway, running for state auditor, won 50.96 percent of the 33,060 votes locally cast in that race at the time.
Meanwhile, four-term Republican Rep. Ann Wagner won reelection in her suburban St. Louis congressional district against Democratic state Sen. Jill Schupp in a race political experts had rated a toss-up.
Here's a look at the top issues and candidates in Missouri's election:
VOTING
Missouri lawmakers passed a law allowing anyone to vote by mail this year because of the pandemic, as long as they got their ballots notarized. As of Sunday, about 828,000 Missouri voters had cast early in-person or mail-in ballots. That's nearly three times as many as were counted in the last presidential election.
Elections officials were predicting a 75% voter turnout rate this election, which would be Missouri's highest since 1992, when 78% of registered voters cast ballots in an election won by Democrat Bill Clinton.
TRUMP CARRIES MISSOURI
President Donald Trump has carried Missouri for the second time. The Republican defeated former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden four years after he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 19 percentage points. Missouri, once considered a swing state, has become decidedly more conservative over the past two decades.
REDISTRICTING
The Republican-led Legislature put a redistricting measure on Tuesday's ballot that would override changes voters made two years ago to the process of redrawing the state's electoral boundaries. It appeared to be winning by a narrow margin. The 2018 "Clean Missouri" initiative required state House and Senate districts to be drawn to achieve "partisan fairness" and made Missouri the first state to adopt a specific formula known as the "efficiency gap" to measure fairness. The Legislature's alternative would shift partisan fairness and competitiveness to the bottom of the priority list for redistricting. It would also abolish the newly created position of a nonpartisan demographer to draft districts and instead make a pair of bipartisan commissions responsible for that task, as they had been in the past.
TERM LIMITS
Missouri voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have limited the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and state auditor to two four-year terms in office. Currently, only the governor and treasurer are restricted to eight years in office.
SECRETARY OF STATE
Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has won a second four-year term in office by staving off Democrat Yinka Faleti, a 44-year-old Army veteran who previously worked as executive director of the St. Louis-area racial equity group Forward through Ferguson. Ashcroft has supported requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. Faleti criticized Ashcroft's handling of elections during the pandemic.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt has won election to a full term. The governor appointed Schmitt attorney general in 2018 to replace former Attorney General Josh Hawley, who left office two years into his term to join the U.S. Senate. Schmitt had been serving as the state treasurer and previously was elected to the state Senate. Democrat Rich Finneran, a 36-year-old former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, ran against him.
TREASURER
Voters have elected Republican Scott Fitzpatrick to a full term as state treasurer. Parson appointed Fitzpatrick to succeed Schmitt as treasurer after Schmitt left for the Attorney General's Office in 2018. Fitzpatrick at the time was leading the budget committee in the state House. Democrat Vicki Lorenz Englund, a 46-year-old former state representative, campaigned to unseat him.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe won a full four-year term in office by defeating Democrat Alissia Cannady, who performed well but ultimately lost a race to become Kansas City's mayor last year. Parson appointed Kehoe lieutenant governor two years ago after Parson left the office to become governor when Greitens resigned. In Missouri, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately.
CONGRESSIONAL RACES
Incumbents won reelection in seven of Missouri's eight congressional districts. The exception was in the 1st District, which covers St. Louis and part of St. Louis County. Cori Bush, a nurse and racial justice activist, pulled an upset in the August primary by defeating longtime incumbent Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay. Bush was elected Tuesday.
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Find AP's full election coverage at APNews.com/Election2020.
See also:
November 3, 2020, General Election Results Here are results from statewide and Mid-Missouri elections, as well as election wrap-up stories.