ST. LOUIS, June 4 (UPI) -- Missouri's 8th Congressional District remains in Republican hands after Jason Smith beat Steve Hodges in a special election Tuesday.
With 286 of 462 precincts counted, Smith, a 32-year-old GOP state representative from Salem, was polling about 67 percent of the vote to 28 percent for Hodges, a 64-year-old Democratic state lawmaker and substitute teacher from East Prairie, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
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Smith, a lawyer, succeeds Jo Ann Emerson, who was dean of the Missouri congressional delegation before quitting to head up the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a Washington trade group.
Missouri's 8th District covers much of southeast Missouri.
