Swan says primary is 'over' but does not concede

Republican voters in state Senate District 27 apparently won’t need to wait for a possible recount to know who their general election candidate is.

Kathy Swan of Cape Girardeau, who represents District 147 in the state House, said in a social media post Wednesday her primary race with District 148 state Rep. Holly Rehder of Sikeston, Missouri, had ended.

“I want to thank everyone who supported me by volunteering your time and resources. With your help, we were able to run a strong campaign. The results were not what we hoped, but sometimes God has another plan,” she said. “A senator’s work for the people is of vital importance, and I wish Holly the best. With the primary over, our focus now must be to get Republicans to the polls this November. Continued conservative leadership is of the utmost importance for our state and our nation, and we have a strong slate of candidates we need to stand behind in the general election.”

However, in an online comment on this story, Swan denied she had conceded the race.

Swan was unavailable for direct comment Tuesday night and Wednesday.

The district spans six counties, and primary voters cast 33,527 ballots in the race. In complete but unofficial results, Rehder won by 141 votes, 16,834 to 16,693 — a difference of 0.4%.

State law allows for recounts in races decided by 0.5% or less.

Election night, Rehder said the race had been hard fought.

“This was a spirited campaign and I was up against a strong opponent in Rep. Kathy Swan. She has served Cape Girardeau well for many years and I certainly respect her service,” she said in a statement released to news media. “Today, voters chose a different path of fearless conservatism that didn’t just stand for the way things have always been, but new ideas on how we can move this state forward. I look forward to being a part of those solutions in the Missouri Senate. I want to thank my family and friends for all of their support and hard work over the last year and I look forward to the general election in November.”

Rehder will face Democrat Donnie Owens in November’s general election.

As the votes began to pour in after polls closed Tuesday, Swan took an early lead. Perry, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties provided a cushion of 3,309 votes.

However, Scott County, Rehder’s home turf, closed the gap by 2,995 votes. Wayne County added 38 votes to Rehder’s total, leaving Rehder behind by 276 votes with only Madison County’s ballots left.

Rehder won the county by 417 votes, providing the final margin of victory, 141 votes — 50.2% for Rehder and 49.8% for Swan.

Maura Browning, director of public affairs and strategic communications for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, said such close vote tallies are unusual but not unheard of. She said by telephone Wednesday another state Senate Republican primary — District 33 -- ended Tuesday with 0.4% separating the top two vote-getters. By email, Browning provided a report from the 2018 primaries showing two state representative primary races were also within the 0.5% margin — one with only four votes separating the candidates, a margin of 0.08%.

Rehder and Swan, term-limited in the House, sought the seat held by state Sen. Wayne Wallingford, who because of term limits could not run again for the seat. He ran for Cape Girardeau’s state House seat, the seat held by Swan, and won by about 200 votes in Tuesday’s Republican primary against John Voss.