Sixteen years ago, I was a relatively new political reporter at the @columbiatribune. In an election season that included a nationally watched #MOSEN contest, there was one race I requested to cover: The 18th District Senate race between Wes Shoemyer and Bob Behnen.
The race was the most competitive legislative race in Missouri. Democrats were trying to bring a group of northeastern Missouri counties back into their fold after GOP started to make gains there in the early 2000s.
Shoemyer ended up winning every county except Marion, Putnam and Adair. He was helped by the fact that 2006 was a terrible year for the GOP (and, perhaps, that he was a farmer and his opponent was genealogist).
Four years later, Shoemyer lost decisively to @BrianforSenate. And eight years later, @cindyolaughlin2 won every single county in #SD18 by landslide margins.
This is the story of how this once super Democratic district became super Republican: news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol…
This is the story of how this once super Democratic district became super Republican: news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol…
There’s a lot of smaller reasons why the 18th District went red. But most of it comes down to the nationalization of local politics — spurred on by conservative media, a shift in national party coalitions and voters loyal to Dems dying out: news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol… 
Missouri Democrats don’t have any easy answers on how to gain ground in rural areas like the 18th District. If they don’t, they will continue to lose statewide elections for years if not decades. news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol…
“There’s a crosscurrent of national politics from Tip O’Neill’s ‘all politics is local’ to the modern day ‘all politics are national.’” — @jeffroe news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol…
This story is part of a broader series looking at the political shift in Missouri’s 6th District. It’s a collaboration between @stlpublicradio, @kcur and @NPRMidwestNews: news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol…
Special thanks to @brianmmunoz for going to Shelby County to take photos — @brentajones for creating a graphic showing the NEMO shift. And thank you to @SteveVockrodt for editing the web story, a true labor of love from a NEMO politics lover: news.stlpublicradio.org/government-pol…
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