The crowd at the Republican watch party at Inside Columbia Magazine grew more excited as Republicans gained the Senate majority.
Republican Rep. Caleb Rowden, the 44th District's State Representative, announced fellow Republican Chuck Basye as the winning candidate to represent Missouri's 47th District. Basye defeated Democrat John Wright by 263 votes. This will be Basye's first term as an elected official.
Throughout the night Basye said he was proud of his work and had no regrets whether he won or lost.
"I feel pretty good. We did everything we needed to do," he said.
Basye said one of his main goals is focusing on education.
"Our kids are very important and that's my number one priority. I'm saying public schools, private schools and parochial schools. I'm going to do my best to support them all. They're our future and that's very important to me," he said.
Basye also said he is going to look out for family farmers, boost the economy by getting Missourians back to work and he plans on cutting taxes. He said Missourians are overtaxed.
Basye will head to Jefferson City tomorrow to vote on leadership. But first, he said he plans on taking a few days of rest after an exhausting nine months of campaigning.