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Hartzler holds on to U.S. 4th District, defeats Hensley

Kristofor Husted
/
KBIA

U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler held on to the U.S. 4th District in what turned out to be a fairly decisive victory over Democrat Teresa Hensley.

Republican incumbent Vicky Hartzler defeated her Democratic challenger Teresa Hensley with 63 percent of the votes. Hensley, a Cass County prosecutor, earned 35.5 percent.

The two were battling in a newly redrawn U.S. 4th District that now includes Boone County – a county that leans much further left than the rest  in the district. Before the election, Hartzler spent most of her campaign largely ignoring Hensley, went after President Barack Obama and promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Hensley criticized Hartzler for rarely stepping across the aisle to accomplish tasks such as passing the Farm Bill.

But, in the upcoming 113th Congress, Hartzler most likely faces another Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate where stalemates won’t sit well with voters.

“Well we’ll have to look for common ground and I think we are all committed to doing what’s right for the American people and that’s what this is about," Hartzler said. "We can’t wait another two years or four years before we get things done. We’ve got to get our economy going now and we have to get the regulations off the backs of our businesses. And we’ve got to quit spending money we don’t have and make some significant reforms to the very important programs we don’t have.”

Hartzler, who is known for championing Missouri’santi-gay marriage amendment in 2004, rode the Tea Party wave into office in 2010. Back then, she took out Democrat Ike Skelton who had served in the office for more than three decades.

Kristofor left KBIA in fall of 2021