Bryant Wolfin, the 145th district representative in the Missouri House of Representatives, won the republican primary over Scott Sattler. Wolfin will run against Democrat Carl Kinsky, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary election, in November for the seat.
Wolfin, the incumbent, won with 55 percent of the vote in Perry County, and 64 percent of the vote in the overall district.
“We want to thank the great people of the 145th district of Perry and Ste. Genevieve Counties,” Wolfin said. “They entrusted me during my first term. We’ve obviously taken a stand on constitutional government and limited government and we preach conservative principles, and you never know how sometimes these stands will go. Clearly, I think that the people of the 145th district are on my side and believe the same things that I believe. I greatly appreciate the constituency and the people of the district for entrusting me for another two years.”
Wolfin wanted to thank his challenger for running a clean and respectful campaign and working with him to give the public numerous opportunities to hear from both candidates throughout the months leading to the vote.
“I do want to congratulate and thank Scott for stepping up and running a hard fought and well run campaign overall,” Wolfin said. “It does take a lot of guts, the statistics are never in someone’s favor when they’re running against the incumbent. So for him to stand up for what you know he believes in and take that sacrifice and time away from his personal life to essentially do what he’s passionate about, you have to commend that.”
“In politics today, you don’t see that,” Wolfin said regarding the respect that he and Sattler showed each other in the race. “Look at the races across the state. Anywhere from some local county executive races in St. Charles that got real nasty to state senate races that were sending out ten mailers a day that were all negative. We both had a conversation early on about how we were going to respect each other and not stoop to the levels that you see in politics and Scott held his promise there and so did I.”
Wolfin added that he will learn from the debates he had with Sattler, and use the experience of running against him to better represent the people of the district.
“Competition makes everybody better, and so I know because of Scott, he’s made me better in this office,” Wolfin said. “He’s pointed out some potential flaws and we’re gonna go back to the drawing board and work on some of those things to overall make our office better and hopefully better serve the people of the 145th district.”
Sattler officially conceded in a statement on social media.
“I want to thank everyone who supported me during this campaign,” the statement read. “While we weren’t successful, we put up a good fight. I wish Representative Wolfin the best as he continues to serve the 145th District in the Missouri House of Representatives.”
Wolfin said that should he win over Kinsky in November, he will spend his next two years in Jefferson City continuing to work on revenue issues in Ste. Genevieve County, along with securing additional funding for the Missouri Veterans Memorial and continuing his focus on limiting omnibus bills in the house and presenting more single issue bills.
Wolfin said that both he and Kinsky agree that the Ste. Genevieve revenue issue is a top priority regardless of who ends up in the seat.
“It was kind of my number one priority going into my first term and it will be my number one priority going into the second term,” Wolfin said. “Because if we don’t turn this revenue issue around, St. Genevieve is going to be forced to potentially raise taxes on its citizens or they’re going to continue to lose services and we don’t want to see that happening at all.”
Wolfin said that even though the district is heavily republican, he does not take the November vote for granted. He said he and Kinsky have spoken with each other and are planning to host forums and debates, because they both want to educate the citizens of the district before the final vote.
