Lauren Arthur won a special election for the 17th District state senate seat on Tuesday, June 5.
The Democrat garnered 14,674 votes (59.6 percent) to easily beat Kevin Corlew, who had 9,917 (40.2 percent).
There were 27 write-in votes.
Lauren Arthur
Corlew, an attorney when not in Jefferson City, was running on the Republican ticket and Arthur, a former teacher, was the Democratic party’s pick to fill the seat.
The 17th District represents southwestern Clay County including a portion of the Platte County R-3 School District near Barry School.
Ryan Silvey, a Republican, held the seat but resigned to accept an appointment to the Missouri Public Service Commission in January.
This was the first time since 2005 that a Democrat had won a senate seat in the 17th District.
Both Arthur and Corlew are in their second term in the General Assembly. Corlew will now turn his attention to his District 14 House of Representatives race against Eric Holmes of Kansas City.
Arthur will pull out of the District 18 House race, which represents Avondale, North Kansas City and Kansas City.
Currently Democrats hold 47 seats of the 163 in the House of Representatives and will now hold 10 of the 34 Senate seats after Arthur’s victory.
Corlew called Arthur around 9 p.m. to concede.
In recent weeks, Arthur spent more than $120,000 on television ads, while those backing Corlew sent out flyers to voters in Clay County.
About 20 percent of registered voters took part in this election.