Rehder ready for the next challenge in Jeff City

State Sen.-elect Holly Rehder says she is “very thankful and honored” to be elected to succeed term-limited Wayne Wallingford this coming January in the upper chamber of Missouri’s General Assembly.

Rehder, a Republican from Scott City, defeated Democratic challenger Donnie Owens of Marquand in Tuesday’s general election, 63,575 votes to 19,109 votes, a 76.9% winning advantage.

Rehder, 51, said it is “unusual, historically” for someone not from Cape Girardeau County to represent Missouri Senate District 27, a six-county area that also includes Bollinger, Madison, Perry, Scott and Wayne counties.

“I’m proud to be (the people’s) voice,” Rehder said, asserting she will “work tirelessly so they all get to know me.”

A tough path

In the contentious Aug. 4 GOP primary, Rehder, the current Missouri House District 148 representative, lost Cape Girardeau County to Kathy Swan, a Cape Girardeau resident and District 147 lawmaker, by 60%-to-40%.

Rehder overcame Swan’s advantage in the district’s population hub by her overall advantage in the other five counties, winning the Senate District 27 Republican nomination by the razor-thin margin of 139 votes or 0.4%.

Rehder, according to a financial disclosure form filed Oct. 29 with the Missouri Ethics Commission, spent $420,026.53 this year to win a job that pays $35,915 annually.

Signature issue unchanged

Rehder has unsuccessfully championed legislation to create a statewide prescription drug monitoring program during all of her previous eight years in the Missouri House.

She will pursue PDMP again when Rehder moves to the other side of the Capitol in Jefferson City.

“We continue to be the only state in the U.S. without a statewide program,” said Rehder, who said lawmakers got close to passing the PDMP bill, which has a focus on the opioid crisis, in spring.

Following a 94-59 affirmative House vote on HB 1693, the Narcotics Control Act, the Senate failed to act before the legislative session ended May 15.

A disappointed Rehder said at the time senators engaged in a filibuster to run out the clock on PDMP legislation.

“Honestly, with PDMP, we have very different concepts in our (Republican) caucus,” she said this week.

State amendments

Rehder said she personally favors term limits but voted against Amendment 1 on Tuesday.

“I didn’t like the fact that the (Missouri) Attorney General was included in the term-limits category,” said Rehder, who indicated the state could ill afford the loss of institutional memory in that position.

Missourians agreed with Rehder, voting down the amendment by a 52%-48% margin.

Rehder was a backer of Amendment 3, dealing with redistricting, saying a previous initiative, passed in 2018, was “bad” for rural areas.

State voters gave their OK to the amendment by a narrow 51%-49% margin.

Gov. Parson

Rehder said she and Mike Parson, who also won election Tuesday, “have not always seen eye-to-eye” on legislation, but added Parson has brought “a steady hand” to the business of state government after the 2018 resignation of his predecessor, Eric Greitens.

“(Parson) listens and is for local control, which I like very much,” Rehder said.

Presidential election

Rehder, a supporter of President Donald Trump, said if Joe Biden wins the presidency, a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate in Washington will act as an effective check on Biden’s policies.

“(The Senate) will make it impossible for (Biden) to implement a socialist agenda,” she said.