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Republican state senators on Thursday elected Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin as the majority leader, becoming the first woman to hold the second-most powerful job in the Senate.
O’Laughlin of Shelbina, Missouri, defeated Senator Mike Bernscotter of Jefferson City in a vote held at a closed-door caucus. Current Majority Leader Caleb Rhoden of Colombia was elected without opposition as the Republican candidate for Senate Speaker Protem.
Both O’Loughlin and Roden said their goal was internal peace within the faction-controlled caucuses, allowing members to focus on passing legislation rather than fighting each other.
“I certainly hope so than last session“We all know from the last session that when things start going wrong, they can go wrong really fast,” O’Laughlin told reporters after the caucuses. I learned.”
One source of friction, the conservative caucus, Break up this summer After a four-year escalating war with the Republican leadership. O’Laughlin, who joined the group after taking office in 2019, will be leaving the caucuses in 2021.
“After being here for over a year, a year and a half, I felt like I understood the issues here and how things work and wanted to speak for myself,” said O’Laughlin. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Republicans will retain a 24-10 majority when new members take office in the Senate, which begins its term in January. This is the same partisan division as the current House of Commons, but one of the reasons the Conservative caucuses were dissolved was that the caucus-backed candidate won his four Republican primaries, leaving members of the House of Commons to the right. This is because he said that he succeeded in pushing up to
Rowden replaces Dave Schatz, who is leaving the conference room due to term limits. Roden has his second term left, which may have contributed to the no-vote election.
He said Senator Andrew Koenig of R-Manchester was nominated by members of the caucus but refused to run for election.
Roden has been the majority leader for four years and has often been the target of criticism at the Conservative caucuses for being too closely aligned with the Democrats.The biggest issue that divided the Republican Party last year was how to draw a map When the Conservative caucuses failed to win in the state’s seven House of Commons constituencies, MPs used parliamentary ploys to overwhelm the Senate.
“Last year’s map was a very extenuating situation, ten times worse than otherwise,” Roden said.
Roden said the election gave Republicans a fresh start in the Senate, and said these divisions should stay in the past.
“I’m more concerned with getting what’s important to my children than with taking revenge or taking revenge on someone,” Rhoden said.
Rowden’s nomination as a protem must receive full Senate approval when the next session begins on Jan. means certainty.
Senator Bill Igel of Weldon Spring, now a key member of the late caucuses, said he was happy with the leadership election and the promise of Roden and O’Loughlin to seek peace within the Republican Party.
Eigel said there were no conditions that had to be met to keep the peace.
“Caleb’s message is about doing big things for the Republican Party, and that’s a great message,” Igel said.
On the Democratic side of Congress, Senator John Rizzo of Independence was selected as the minority House Representative for the next session, and Senator Doug Beck of Afton was selected as the Vice House Representative.
In a news release, Rizzo said Senate Democrats would focus on restoring abortion rights, public safety, and economic issues important to families. He said, “Republican MAGA extremism continues to alienate voters.”
Democrats in the Missouri House of Representatives also met on Thursday to re-elect Rep. Crystal Quaid of Springfield as minority leader.
On Wednesday, House Republicans elected Congressman Jonathan Patterson at Lee’s Summit As the parliamentary majority leader, Desloge Rep. Mike Henderson has been nominated as a candidate for the Speaker Protem. Rep. Dean Plotcher, formerly the majority leader, was nominated Republican Speaker of the House.
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