Josh Hawley Defeats Claire McCaskill In Missouri Senate Race

ST. LOUIS, MO — Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has conceded to her Republican challenger, Josh Hawley, in their contest for U.S. Senate, McCaskill announced late Tuesday. With all of the ballots counted, Hawley has carried the state by around 6 percentage points and just over 144,000 votes.

"This state drives me crazy but I love every corner of it," McCaskill said Tuesday night, citing her record of 22 wins and only 2 losses during her time in politics.

You can find all the full results at the bottom of the page.

On Tuesday morning, McCaskill waited in line to vote like everyone else in Kirkwood, Missouri, taking a call from Sen. Bob Corker while she waited in the hallway at the Kirkwood Community Center. The Tennessee Republican wished her luck, McCaskill said, adding that after the election is over, she hopes to get back to working with her colleagues across the aisle.

"Do you want someone who is lockstep on one side of the aisle, or do you want someone who actually understands that compromise is an American value and compromise is how we actually accomplish things," McCaskill said. "It is really time that we turned down the temperature and tried to get back to bipartisan compromise."

Voters, however, had something else in mind.

(SEE ALSO: Missouri Midterms 2018: Election Results And Up-To-Date Coverage)

While there were 5 candidates competing for the seat, including Libertarian Japeth Campbell, Green Party candidate Jo Crain and independent Craig O'Dear, it's those other two names that have been getting all the attention: Claire McCaskill and Josh Hawley.

McCaskill, currently the state's senior U.S. Senator and a Democrat, was first elected in 2006 after stints as a prosecutor, state representative and state auditor. She is the first woman to be elected to the seat.

McCaskill has had a tough reelection fight over the past several weeks, and her loss is a serious blow to Democratic hopes of retaking the Senate. In previous races, McCaskill benefited from opponents willing to say outlandish and offensive things on tape. Her 2012 race drew national attention when her opponent, Todd Akin, said women couldn't get pregnant from what he termed a "legitimate rape." She beat Akin by a 20-point margin, but unfortunately for McCaskill, Hawley was no Akin.

McCaskill has faced her share of criticism from both the right and the left, with some Democrats arguing she is too conservative on abortion and other issues, and that she hasn't done enough for the state's African American community.

"Claire’s not one of those crazy Democrats. She works right in the middle and finds compromise," according to a recent political ad running across Missouri. That ad, clearly meant to appeal to conservative and independent voters, has upset some Democrats like State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, who haven't taken kindly to being called "crazy."

Others, though, have defended McCaskill as "the best Democratic Senator," arguing that she knows how to work across the aisle and stay focused on less glamorous issues, like taking on drug manufacturers and tackling the opioid epidemic.

Or, put in simpler terms: "Vote for Claire McCaskill, You Liberal Dip***ts," intoned the Riverfront Times last week. That might be all well and good for the "hippies" to which the RFT's article is addressed, but that type of rhetoric "does not work in the Black community," Chappelle-Nadal wrote on Twitter.

McCaskill has called herself "authentically a moderate," and in her campaign has often tried to walk a fine line between her Democratic base and the state's rural, more conservative bent. At an appearance at a St. Louis coffee shop last month, according to the Associated Press, McCaskill defended voting for increased border security, said she didn't think NFL players kneeling during the national anthem is appropriate — "but I respect anybody's right to do it" — and put a damper on talk of a looming presidential impeachment.

She did, however, come out strongly against President Trump's recently-confirmed Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford and other women.

"I have been thorough in examining Judge Kavanaugh's record," McCaskill explained in September. "And while the recent allegations against him are troubling and deserve a thorough and fair examination by the Senate Judiciary Committee, my decision is not based on those allegations but rather on his positions on several key issues, most importantly the avalanche of dark, anonymous money that is crushing our democracy."

Meanwhile, Hawley — currently Missouri's Republican attorney general — has taken a different approach in his run for office, embracing a president whose approval ratings hover around 40 percent nationally but are 10 points higher in Missouri, according to the polling aggregation and analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

Hawley made a name for himself by investigating Missouri's previous Republican governor, Eric Greitens, for campaign finance and open records law violations after a woman accused the governor of taking a non-consensual, partially-naked photo and threatening to blackmail her with it. Greitens resigned unexpectedly in May, putting an end to most of the charges against him.

Hawley and conservative groups have attacked McCaskill for her support of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and her opposition to short-term health insurance plans. Conservatives have called those plans more affordable. McCaskill and many Democrats call them "junk."

Meanwhile, McCaskill has criticized an Obamacare lawsuit from Hawley that, if successful, could cut Medicare benefits for Missouri seniors and end protections for Missourians with pre-existing conditions.

Just last week, McCaskill accused Hawley of illegally using political consultants as attorney general, according to Politico. She called it "inappropriate and potentially illegal" that "politically paid operatives [were] embedded in the state's official office for purposes of promoting Josh Hawley politically..."

Hawley's campaign called the allegations "absurdly false" and said no taxpayer dollars were used for campaign purposes.

President Trump has been stumping for Hawley across the state in the final days of the race and Republicans believe things are tilting their way. Just Monday night, Trump appeared with right-wing media personalities at a rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Going into election day, most polls showed the race in a dead heat, well within the margin of error. Hawley bested McCaskill in several recent polls, but FiveThirtyEight gave McCaskill about a 60 percent chance of coming out on top. NBC News called the race a "margin-of-error contest" after a recent poll found McCaskill just narrowly ahead.

Ultimately, though, McCaskill was unable rack up enough votes in St. Louis and Kansas City to offset Hawley's large margins in the state's wide, rural heartland.

Keep checking back for the latest results as they come in:

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Photo: "Do you have an ID," a poll worker joked as Sen. Claire McCaskill arrived at the polls in Kirkwood, Missouri, Tuesday morning. (J. Ryne Danielson/Patch)