State Rep. Jason Smith (R) won a special congressional election Tuesday in Missouri, taking over the seat from one political family who represented the state’s heavily Republican 8th district for 32 years.
Smith will succeed Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), who left office two months after winning re-election to lead the National Rural Electric Cooperative as president and chief executive. Emerson succeeded her husband Bill Emerson, who assumed the office in 1980, after he died of lung cancer in 1996.
Smith defeated Demorat Steve Hodges in a race in which he was heavily favored.