Incumbent Republican Cheri Toalson Reisch won the race to represent Missouri's 44th district Tuesday night. This will be Reisch’s fourth and final term in the Missouri House of Representatives, due to term limits. She beat out Democrat Dave Reithel by some 3,600 votes.
Reisch attended an election night watch party hosted by the Boone County GOP, and learned she won the election around 11:30 p.m. She said she had been awake and working since 5:30 a.m.
“I'm good, but I'm tired,” Reisch said. “I'm very humbled. I want to thank the voters, basically, for sending me back to my fourth and final term to help represent Boone County.”
Reisch said she’ll be in Jefferson City on Wednesday, hitting the ground running by electing senior leadership and preparing bills for the first day of filing on December 1.
Despite her decisive victory, Reisch’s time in office has not been without controversy. In 2017, Reisch drew criticism after reportedly bringing a gun to an event at the Daniel Boone Regional Library — at the time, the library did not allow concealed weapons. In 2018, Reisch was sued by a constituent after blocking them on Twitter. In 2022, she falsely claimed there were Columbia Public School students dressed as animals using litter boxes as bathrooms, and provided no evidence to support her claim.
Reisch said she is looking forward to accomplishing things for her constituents.
“I'm all about smaller government. I'm all about public school education,” she said. “Just kind of getting government out of the way of people's lives. Freedom. Constitution. Liberty.”
