Missouri State Senate District 21

Missouri State Senate District 21

Incumbent

Denny Hoskins

About the District

Census Topic	Value
Population	175,506
Gender	49.9% Male 50.1% Female
Race	87% White 3.1% Black 0.8% Asian 0.5% Native American 0.4% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity	4.4% Hispanic
Median household income	$53,617
High school graduation rate	89.1%
College graduation rate	21.6%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 census and 2019 ACS data

Missouri State Senate District 21 is represented by Denny Hoskins (R).

As of the 2020 Census, Missouri state senators represented an average of 181,026 residents. After the 2010 Census, each member represented 176,144 residents.

About the office[edit]

Members of the Missouri State Senate serve four-year terms with a limit of two terms.^[1] Half of the Senate is up for re-election every two years. Missouri legislators assume office the first day of the legislative session, which is the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January at 12:00pm.^[2]

Qualifications[edit]

See also: State legislature candidate requirements by state

To be eligible to serve in the Missouri State Senate, a candidate must meet the following qualifications:^[3]

Salaries[edit]

See also: Comparison of state legislative salaries

Term limits[edit]

See also: State legislatures with term limits

The Missouri legislature is one of 15 state legislatures with term limits. Voters enacted the Missouri Term Limits Act in 1992. That initiative said that Missouri senators are subject to term limits of no more than two four-year terms, or a total of eight years.^[1]

The first year that the 1992 term limits impacted the ability of incumbents to run for office was in 2002.

Vacancies[edit]

See also: How vacancies are filled in state legislatures

If there is a vacancy in the Missouri General Assembly, the governor of Missouri must call for a special election without delay. The election mandate is sent to the county that first established the legislative district.^[5]

See sources: Missouri Cons. Art. III, §14

District map[edit]

The map below shows this district's current boundaries, not those enacted as part of the 2020 redistricting cycle.

Redistricting[edit]

2020-2021[edit]

See also: Redistricting in Missouri after the 2020 census

Missouri completed its legislative redistricting on March 15, 2022, when the state’s Judicial Redistricting Commission filed new state Senate district boundaries with the secretary of state.^[6] Missouri was the 43rd state to complete legislative redistricting. The House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission unanimously approved the state House’s district boundaries on Jan. 21.^[7] These maps take effect for Missouri’s 2022 legislative elections.

The Senate Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission failed to submit proposed maps to the secretary of state's office by the December 23, 2021, deadline. Therefore, responsibility for developing Senate district boundaries was assumed by the Missouri Judicial Commission for Redistricting.^[8] The judicial commission released their final plan and sent it to the secretary of state's office on March 15, 2022. The commission’s chair, Missouri Appeals Court Justice Cynthia Lynette Martin, said in a press release, "The Judicial Redistricting Commission’s work has been thorough and labor intensive, and was purposefully undertaken with the goal to file a constitutionally compliant plan and map well in advance of the commission’s constitutional deadline to avoid disenfranchising voters given the candidate filing deadline and the deadline for preparing ballots."^[9] Scott Faughn of The Missouri Times wrote that "The biggest difference in this map and that previous map is that it shifts the weight of some of the districts from rural weighted districts to evenly split districts and even enhances the suburban influence inside several republican seats." He added, "the new map produces 7 solid democratic districts, and 3 likely democratic districts. On the republican side the new map produces 18 solid republican districts, and 3 more likely republican districts," with two competitive districts when the current incumbents no longer seek office.^[10]

The House Independent Bipartisan Citizens Commission unanimously approved new state House district boundaries on January 19, 2022. Fourteen of the commission's 20 members were required to approve the plan. If the commission was unable to agree on a redistricting plan by January 23, 2022, authority over the process would have transferred to the Missouri Judicial Commission for Redistricting.^[11] In a press release issued after the map was finalized, commission chair Jerry Hunter said, "I want to personally thank all of the commissioners for the hard work that was put in by the commissioners and, obviously, as all of you know, the supporting individuals that have been instrumental to helping get this map done on both sides – on both the Democratic and Republican sides."^[12] Rudi Keller of the Missouri Independent wrote, "Of the 163 districts..., there are 38 where Democrats should have the advantage, 97 where Republicans are dominant and 28 districts with past election results showing less than a 10% advantage for either party.^[11]

State Senate map[edit]

This map takes effect for Missouri’s 2022 legislative elections.

State House map[edit]

This map takes effect for Missouri’s 2022 legislative elections.

How does redistricting in Missouri work? In Missouri, congressional district boundaries are drawn by the state legislature. These lines are subject to veto by the governor.^[13]

Two distinct politician commissions are ultimately responsible for state legislative redistricting, one for the Missouri State Senate and another for the Missouri House of Representatives. Membership on these commissions is determined as follows:^[13]

1. Senate redistricting commission: The state committee of each major political party nominates 10 members to the commission, for a total of 20 nominees. From this pool, the governor selects five members per party, for a total of 10 commissioners.
2. House redistricting commission: The congressional district committee of each major political party nominates two members per congressional district, for a total of 32 nominees. From this pool, the governor appoints one member per party per district, for a total of 16 commissioners.

Elections[edit]

2020[edit]

See also: Missouri State Senate elections, 2020

General election for Missouri State Senate District 21

Incumbent Denny Hoskins defeated Mark Bliss in the general election for Missouri State Senate District 21 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Denny Hoskins (R)	79.8	61,698
		Mark Bliss (L)	20.2	15,595

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 77,293
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary for Missouri State Senate District 21

Incumbent Denny Hoskins advanced from the Republican primary for Missouri State Senate District 21 on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Denny Hoskins	100.0	21,430

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 21,430 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Libertarian primary for Missouri State Senate District 21

Mark Bliss advanced from the Libertarian primary for Missouri State Senate District 21 on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mark Bliss	100.0	151

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 151 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2016[edit]

See also: Missouri State Senate elections, 2016

Elections for the Missouri State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was March 29, 2016. Incumbent David Pearce (R) did not seek re-election.

Denny Hoskins defeated ElGene Ver Dught and Bill Wayne in the Missouri State Senate District 21 general election.^[14]

Missouri State Senate, District 21 General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Denny Hoskins	67.63%	50,288
	Democratic	ElGene Ver Dught	26.88%	19,988
	Libertarian	Bill Wayne	5.48%	4,077
Total Votes				74,353
Source: Missouri Secretary of State

ElGene Ver Dught ran unopposed in the Missouri State Senate District 21 Democratic primary.^[15][16]

Missouri State Senate, District 21 Democratic Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate
	Democratic	ElGene Ver Dught  (unopposed)

Denny Hoskins defeated Mike McGhee in the Missouri State Senate District 21 Republican primary.^[17][18]

Missouri State Senate, District 21 Republican Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Denny Hoskins	58.51%	11,219
	Republican	Mike McGhee	41.49%	7,954
Total Votes				19,173

2012[edit]

See also: Missouri State Senate elections, 2012

Elections for the office of Missouri State Senate consisted of a primary election on August 7, 2012 and a general election on November 6, 2012. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 27, 2012. Incumbent David Pearce (R) defeated ElGene Ver Dught (D) and Steven Hedrick (L) in the general election. Pearce defeated Mike McGhee in the Republican primary. Ver Dught and Hedrick were unopposed in their respective primaries.^[19][20]

Missouri State Senate, District 21, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	David Pearce Incumbent	65.1%	47,490
	Democratic	ElGene Ver Dught	30.3%	22,073
	Libertarian	Steven Hedrick	4.6%	3,351
Total Votes				72,914

Missouri State Senate, District 21 Republican Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
David Pearce Incumbent	65.2%	12,452
Mike McGhee	34.8%	6,653
Total Votes		19,105

Campaign contributions[edit]

From 2000 to 2016, candidates for Missouri State Senate District 21 raised a total of $2,219,576. Candidates who raised money in contributions earned $116,820 on average. All figures come from Follow the Money

See also[edit]

Suggest a link

• Missouri State Legislature
• Missouri State Senate
• Missouri House of Representatives

External links[edit]

• Missouri Legislature

Footnotes[edit]

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