Residents in Missouri's 47th District voted to reelect state Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, to his second term in political office. The victory came after his opponent, Democratic retired teacher Susan McClintic, conceded the race to the incumbent representative on Tuesday's election night. But memories of Basye's of his narrow win over John Wright in 2014's race had him a bit uneasy before the election.
"It’s going to be another close race, I’m sure," said Basye. "Bigger turnouts, so you don’t know what to expect. But I think it will be favorable for us. But if it’s not, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done. I worked as hard as I could through the campaign and if that’s the way the voters feel, I’m fine with it."
Luckily for Basye, McClintic's concession of their race came relatively early in a long night of celebration for Missouri Republicans. The representative was clearly relieved after he won the race, but he also had kind words for his opponent.
"I want to work together with her," said Basye. "She advocates for a very important thing, and that’s public education, it’s very important."
Basye will now spend a few weeks relaxing from the trials of the campaign season. He plans to spend more time with his friends and family and to do a good amount of deer hunting when the season opens. But Basye is not forgetting his newly-renewed obligation: serving the constituents of Missouri's 47th District. He plans to get back to work as soon as the new legislative session begins.
"We start filing bills on December 1, and I am going to work on a few. I think we’re probably going to see ‘Right to Work’ probably early on, since Eric Greitens was successful. And I think we’re going to have to do something about our transportation. We got to do something to fix our roads and bridges. They're very critical. That’s just as important as ‘Right to Work,’ so it’s an economic development thing."
