22:15
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Bob Onder defeats Kurt Schaefer to win GOP nomination in 3rd Congressional District
Former state Sen. Bob Onder of O’Fallon, a candidate for Congress in the 3rd District, speaks Feb. 29 at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).
Former state Sen. Bob Onder is the Republican nominee in Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, defeating another former state lawmaker to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer.
The Associated Press called the race at 10:15 p.m., with Onder leading former state Sen. Kurt Schaefer 45% to 39%.
Onder is a physician who ran for Congress and lost to Luetkemeyer in 2008. During his two terms as a member of the Missouri Senate, he earned a reputation as one of the most vocal members of the self-styled conservative caucus, upending the chamber by filibustering a litany of bills, including congressional redistricting, needle exchanges for addicts and Medicaid financing.
The battle between Onder and Schaefer played out on TV airwaves across the sprawling 16-county district, with both sides accusing the other of being a phony conservative who supported selling Missouri farmland to China.
Onder was among the rare Missouri politicians who won the sole endorsement of former President Donald Trump. In other contentious GOP primaries, Trump refused to make a decision on who to support.
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