Missouri State Senate District 31

Missouri State Senate District 31

Incumbent

Rick Brattin

About the District

Census Topic	Value
Population	177,156
Gender	48.9% Male 51.1% Female
Race	87.3% White 3.1% Black 0.6% Asian 0.6% Native American 0.1% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity	4.1% Hispanic
Median household income	$60,132
High school graduation rate	91%
College graduation rate	22.7%

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

Missouri State Senate District 31 is represented by Rick Brattin (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]

2020-2022[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]

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 31

Rick Brattin defeated Raymond Kinney in the general election for Missouri State Senate District 31 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rick Brattin (R)	71.4	63,929
		Raymond Kinney (D)	28.6	25,584

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 89,513
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary for Missouri State Senate District 31

Raymond Kinney advanced from the Democratic primary for Missouri State Senate District 31 on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Raymond Kinney	100.0	7,971

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,971 (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.

Republican primary for Missouri State Senate District 31

Rick Brattin defeated Jack Bondon and Bill Yarberry in the Republican primary for Missouri State Senate District 31 on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rick Brattin	49.6	14,012
		Jack Bondon	44.1	12,467
		Bill Yarberry	6.3	1,774

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 28,253 (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 Ed Emery defeated Lora Young and Tim Wells in the Missouri State Senate District 31 general election.^[14]

Missouri State Senate, District 31 General Election, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Ed Emery Incumbent	72.43%	57,296
	Libertarian	Lora Young	12.65%	10,007
	Independent	Tim Wells	14.92%	11,798
Total Votes				79,101
Source: Missouri Secretary of State

Incumbent Ed Emery defeated Bill Yarberry in the Missouri State Senate District 31 Republican primary.^[15][16]

Missouri State Senate, District 31 Republican Primary, 2016
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Ed Emery Incumbent	74.99%	17,320
	Republican	Bill Yarberry	25.01%	5,777
Total Votes				23,097

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. Ed Emery (R) defeated Charles A. Burton (D) in the general election. Emery defeated two others in the Republican primary. Burton was unopposed in the Democratic primary.^[17][18]

Missouri State Senate, District 31, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Ed Emery	63.8%	49,993
	Democratic	Charles Burton	36.2%	28,375
Total Votes				78,368

Missouri State Senate, District 31 Republican Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Ed Emery	46%	10,110
Scott Largent	43.7%	9,605
Dave Morris	10.4%	2,279
Total Votes		21,994

Campaign contributions[edit]

From 2000 to 2016, candidates for Missouri State Senate District 31 raised a total of $3,272,017. Candidates who raised money in contributions earned $163,601 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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