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St. Louis region's 2nd congressional district looms large in McCaskill-Hawley Senate race

Voter turnout for Missouri's 2nd District contest between Republican Ann Wagner (center left) and Democrat Cort VanOstran (center right) could tip the balance in the Senate race between Republican Josh Hawley (left) and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
Carolina Hidalgo, Jason Rosenbaum | St. Louis Public Radio
Voter turnout for Missouri's 2nd District contest between Republican Ann Wagner (center left) and Democrat Cort VanOstran (center right) could tip the balance in the Senate race between Republican Josh Hawley (left) and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

In Missouri, not all congressional districts are created equal.

Which is why both major U.S. Senate candidates – and their national allies – are paying significant attention to the 2nd District, which spans from south St. Louis County to St. Charles County. It also includes a sliver of Jefferson County.

For almost a decade, the 2nd District has produced more votes than its seven counterparts. The 2nd District also includes many of the suburban women voters that both sides covet.

To help capture these key votes, Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill and her Republican rival, Josh Hawley, are engaging in joint field operations with their parties’ congressional candidates.Loading...

Although the 2nd District has skewed Republican, Democrats believe that energized progressives could help them close the gap. Both parties think their statewide candidates – especially the Senate contenders – will benefit from a strong 2nd District turnout.

The state Democratic Party has a joint get-out-the-vote effort in the 2nd to help McCaskill and its 2nd District candidate, Cort VanOstran, who has been particularly successful in raising money. The duo appeared together at a recent canvass kickoff in Kirkwood.

The Republican National Committee is overseeing a phone-bank operation in west St. Louis County where volunteers call potential voters to persuade them to back Hawley and U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner of Ballwin.

This weekend, Wagner and Hawley are expected to be campaigning in the 2nd, although at separate events.

And VanOstran is holding at least two events this week in the 2nd that are specifically targeting suburban women voters.

District has leaned Republican 

Wagner is a former state GOP chairwoman and has represented the 2nd since 2013. She says she’s not surprised by broader political interest in the district.

“The St. Louis area is incredibly important in statewide elections,’’ she said, noting that the region usually provides close to 40 percent of the statewide vote.

Wagner added, “Voters in the 2nd Congressional District, in particular, are highly independent and engaged voters.”

VanOstran, a lawyer, agrees that the 2nd District is important beyond its borders.

“I feel a great amount of momentum,’’ he said.

VanOstran added that he’s proud that his efforts also could help McCaskill. “I got my start knocking on doors for Claire McCaskill in 2006,’’ he said. “So it’s a great honor to be running alongside her this year.”

McCaskill and Hawley are expected to be even more visible in the 2nd District in the closing weeks.

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter:@jmannies

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

Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.