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KBIA's coverage of all the elections going on in mid-Missouri and the nation for 2012.

McCaskill Re-Elected, Beats Akin In Senate Race

Democratic Sen. ClaireMcCaskilldefeated GOP challenger Todd Akin Tuesday to hold on to a Missouri Senate seat that Republicans once considered vulnerable.

McCaskill won with about 54-percent of the vote in the election. She told supporters in St. Louis' Central West End Tuesday night that the victory means more to her because many pundits had predicted she would lose her seat.

"They all said 'it's over, it's done, it's too red, it's just too red, there is no way that Claire McCaskill can survive.' Well, you know what happened? You proved 'em wrong," McCaskill said.

McCaskill told supporters that her landslide win does not mean she will only represent the interests of Democrats,"McCaskilltold supporters at the Chase Park Plaza.

Akin damaged his chances shortly after winning the August primary, when he said in a TV interview that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in what he called "legitimate rape." Akin apologized. But he refused calls from top Republicans to quit, and his campaign never fully recovered financially. 

Akin was forced to concede early early in the evening at his watch party in Chesterfield.

“Well things don’t always turn out the way you think they’re going to,” said Akin.  “I just called Claire McCaskill and gave her congratulations, because the way the numbers are looking, we have lost this race.”

Throughout the campaign Akin never backed down from his convictions, even after it became apparent that he was likely headed toward defeat.

In conceding, Akin repeated themes warning against big government and Christian conservatism.

“We believe that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness come from almighty god, not an almighty government,” said Akin.  “We also believe that our creator made us one people, there is one class in this country—Americans.”

Neither Akin, nor his staff addressed the media after his concession speech.

Some of Akin's supporters felt that their candidate was hamstrung by his own party after GOP funders dropped support for Akin in the wake of his controversial remarks.

"The Democrats would never throw their own under the bus and that’s what I feel happened in August," said Kimberly Benz of North St. Louis County.

 

  • See more stories on issues and elections from St. Louis Public Radio, the St. Louis Beacon and Nine Network of Public Media at BeyondNovember.org.
  • Follow Adam Allington on Twitter:  @aallington

    Follow Bill Raack on Twitter: @billraack

    Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

    Adam grew up on a cherry farm in northern Michigan. He holds a BA in economics from Kalamazoo College. Adam's radio career began in 2003 at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. He went on to cut his teeth filing stories for Maine Public Radio. Before coming to St. Louis Public Radio in 2006, Adam was was an international journalism fellow at Deutsche Welle in Bonn, Germany. He has regularly filed features for various shows and networks including NPR, PRI, Marketplace and the BBC. He received a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year.
    Raack has been in radio for over 20 years. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of Kansas in 1983, he worked at commercial radio stations in Kansas and then Illinois. He moved to public radio in 1990, joining the staff of WILL-AM/FM in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, as a host/reporter and then as news director in 1993. He returned to his hometown of St. Louis in 1995 as the local host of St. Louis Public Radio's
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