The Missouri General Assembly will have some new faces next year, but the partisan alignment will likely remain unchanged as Republicans appear to have retained their two-thirds supermajorities in both chambers.

The question of which party would obtain the majority in the General Assembly was never in doubt in this election. The Democrats’ goal was to win seats in both chambers – something they hadn’t done since 2006 – and to break the two-thirds qualified majority which the GOP has benefited from since the 2012 elections.

With only incomplete results in close races in Greene County, it appears Democrats are far from achieving that goal.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, unofficial results showed each party gained one seat held by the other in each chamber, but no other changes. If this result holds, Republicans will retain 111 seats in the Missouri House and 23 seats in the Missouri Senate.

The only incumbent Democrat to lose a House seat was state Rep. Jamie Johnson of Kansas City, who represents Platte County’s 12th District. Johnson, the first Black lawmaker to represent the district, was elected in 2022 and was defeated Tuesday by Mike Jones, a veteran and small business owner.

Another freshman lawmaker, state Rep. Chris Lonsdale of Liberty, was the only incumbent Republican to lose a House seat. Lonsdale was defeated by Marty Jacobs, a retired educator.

In the state Senate, Republicans and Democrats swapped seats.

Democrats have chosen central Missouri’s 19th District, where former Columbia State Rep. Stephen Webber will replace outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden. Webber defeated James Coyne, who returned to the race after former state Rep. Chuck Basye withdrew.

In the Independence area, Republican Joe Nicola won his first race after several attempts, including a run for Congress. Nicola will fill the seat previously held by term-limited Democrat John Rizzo, who is now executive director of the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority.

Nicola defeated State Rep. Robert Sauls.

The status quo election result is the worst result for Democrats in the Missouri House in five elections. Democrats won 52 House seats in 2022, a gain of three in the fourth straight election in which the party lost more seats than it lost.

At the time of publication, there were still a handful of races to be decided that could change the outcome. In St. Louis County’s 100th District, Republican incumbent Rep. Philip Oehlerking held a 119-vote lead over Democrat Colin Lovett in a rematch of their 2022 race.

And in Greene County, the results were incomplete, but the incumbent party held the advantage in three elections where about half of the votes had yet to be counted.

Democrats had 10 seats in the state Senate after the 2022 elections and haven’t picked up a seat in the upper house since 2018. And they had several candidates who got more than most of the party’s contenders in the state Senate. statewide.

Retired businessman Joe Pereles spent nearly $900,000 on television ads in St. Louis County’s 15th District, and a PAC supporting him spent $155,000 more trying to win the Republican district. He was defeated by former state Rep. David Gregory, who depleted his campaign account by winning the primary, but was buoyed by about $425,000 in television spending by the GOP Senate PAC, the Committee campaign for the Missouri Senate.

Sauls was defeated despite a $325,000 television campaign in the Kansas City area.

Pereles and Sauls were defeated despite the endorsements of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, generally leaning Republican, and outspending their opponents.

This year’s election is the second to use maps drawn after the 2020 census. That year, voters changes approved to the process that means most legislative districts no longer cross county lines except to have enough population for a full district.

This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.