Incumbents Cleaver, Graves and Hartzler sweep Missouri congressional races

In a chaotic election year, Missouri voters across the board returned incumbents to their seats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday.

In complete but unofficial results, Democrat Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City defeated Republican Jacob Turk of Lee’s Summit for the sixth time in the 5th Congressional District, 58 percent to 39 percent. Libertarian Roy Welborn had 3 percent. The district covers parts of Jackson and Clay counties as well as Ray, Lafayette and Saline counties.

Cleaver is a former Kansas City councilman and mayor who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and is the ranking member of the housing subcommittee. Turk ran as an outsider.

In the 6th District, which includes Platte County and most of Clay County, Republican Sam Graves of Tarkio beat Democrat David Blackwell of Smithville and Libertarian Russ Monchil of Cameron. Graves had 68 percent of the vote to Blackwell’s 28 percent and Monchil’s 2 percent. Green candidate Mike Diel had 1 percent. Graves is chairman of the House subcommittee on highways and transit and is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

In the 4th District, which includes Cass County, Republican Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville defeated Democrat Gordon Christensen of Columbia. Hartzler received 68 percent and Christensen had 28 percent. Libertarian Mark Bliss of Warrensburg had 4 percent. Hartzler is a former public school teacher and former Missouri state representative. She serves on the House Armed Services, Agriculture and Budget committees.

In other races:

▪ 1st District: Democrat Lacy Clay of St. Louis received 75 percent of the vote over Republican Steven G. Bailey and Libertarian Robb E. Cunningham of St. Louis.

▪ 2nd District: Republican Ann Wagner of Ballwin won with 59 percent over Democrat Bill Otto of Maryland Heights, Libertarian Jim Higgins of St. Louis and Green candidate David Arnold.

▪ 3rd District: Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer of St. Elizabeth received 68 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Kevin Miller of St. Charles, Libertarian Dan Hogan of St. Peters and Constitution candidate Doanita Simmons of St. Peters.

▪ 7th District: Republican Billy Long of Springfield won with 68 percent of the vote over Democrat Genevieve Williams of Neosho and Libertarian Benjamin J. Brixey of Strafford.

▪ 8th District: Republican Jason Smith of Cape Girardeau received 75 percent of the vote, beating Democrat Dave Cowell of Farmington and Libertarian Jonathan Shell of Fredericktown.

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Incumbents Cleaver, Graves and Hartzler sweep Missouri congressional races."