'Blue Wave' Breaks On The Shores Of Missouri's Second District

AFFTON, MO — Republican Rep. Ann Wagner has defeated Democrat Cort VanOstran in their contest for Missouri's second U.S. House district, according to a projection from the Associated Press. With all of the vote counted, Wagner came out on top by by about 4 percentage points and just over 15,500 votes.

VanOstran, who was counting on his get-out-the-vote effort, spent the weekend canvassing with hundreds of volunteers across Missouri's second district, which includes portions of St. Louis County, St. Charles County and Jefferson County. With polls showing the race in a statistical dead heat, he said he was expecting a nail-biter where every vote would count.

"I truly believe that this could be an election that is decided by the number of people right here in this room," 30-year-old VanOstran told about two dozen volunteers Sunday afternoon in Affton, Missouri. "Every single person that you talk to today could be the deciding vote."

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

At least one first-time canvasser, 32-year-old Bobby Myers, seems to have taken that message to heart. He first met VanOstran at a town hall in October and quickly saw something he liked in the candidate.

"I just gravitated to his campaign and I really liked his messaging," Myers said. "I've only ever worked one other campaign, so I'm kind of picky about who I show up for."

Myers said he votes in every election, and this one will be no different, though he believes the stakes are higher this time around.

That's a message VanOstran, who hoped to restore "decency and stability" to Washington, has seized on.

"We know what it felt like to wake up on a Wednesday morning a couple years ago," VanOstran said. "I'll just speak for myself, but I think many of you will agree with me. I knew that I probably could have done a little more to change the outcome of that election. I am so grateful that you all are here today so that we don't have to think that this Wednesday morning. We will know that we left it all on the field and did everything we could to try to get things back on track in this country."

And with that, VanOstran hit the streets, knocking on doors and asking residents for their votes as easily as he asked what high schools they attended.

A former attorney and educator, according to his campaign website, VanOstran based his campaign around health care, education, campaign finance and gun reform. He has called for protections for preexisting conditions and a public health approach to the opioid crisis.

"I am running because of an experience that I had with health care," VanOstran told one woman on Langley Avenue. "I lost my mom to breast cancer a couple years ago. She had a plan at the end of her life through the [Affordable Care Act]. When I watched this Congress member try to kick 22 million people off their coverage, to make it impossible for people with preexisting conditions to get coverage, that's really why I decided I had to run."

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The Congress member VanOstran is referring to is Wagner, the Republican incumbent standing between him and a U.S. House seat. Wagner is running for her fourth term in Congress, and VanOstran is at least partially right about her voting record. In 2017, Wagner voted for a failed Republican bill that, while it would have required insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions, would also have let them charge exorbitant and unaffordable rates, according to Politifact. And like most House Republicans, she has voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act — known as Obamacare — dozens of times.

But health care isn't Wagner's focus. In fact, health care isn't mentioned at all on her issues page. Rather, her campaign has been based around so-called "culture war" issues: guns, abortion, immigration. She says she has made it her mission to "bring Missouri's values to Washington" and has emphasized protecting "the American people from ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorists in the Middle East," cutting taxes and federal spending, curbing illegal immigration and protecting the Second Amendment.

"As a lifelong Missouri resident, Ann understands what it means to fight for conservative family values," Wagner's campaign website reads. "Ann believes that all life is sacred and begins at conception. During her time in Congress, she has consistently led the way on pro-life issues and sought to give voice to the voiceless and protect the rights of all Missourians."

Wagner has sought to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood and introduced a bill extending Constitutional protections to the unborn from the moment of fertilization, which would not only outlaw abortion but many forms of birth control, experts say. With a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, that bill or others like it are likely to see Constitutional tests in the coming years.

The Associated Press reports Wagner has not held any town halls during her three terms in Congress, and did not show up to a League of Women Voters candidate forum in October. A spokesperson for her campaign accused the group of being biased against Republicans.

Despite recent momentum, VanOstran faced an uphill battle — and was a steep hill. President Donald Trump won the district in 2016 by more than 10 points and Wagner still had a $2 million war chest as of October 17. That's despite spending nearly a third more than the VanOstran campaign, which, at that point, had less than a quarter million dollars left in the bank.

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Photos: Democratic Congressional candidate Cort VanOstran canvasses in Affton, Missouri. (J. Ryne Danielson/Patch)