Bush wins Missouri, nears national victory
Bush won Missouri by eight points, but Boone County was split 50-50 in the presidential race.
Published Nov. 3, 2004
Although no presidential candidate has conceded, President George W. Bush seems poised to take Ohio's 20 electoral votes and the presidential election along with it.
At press time, the national election picture was still unclear, with some news networks virtually calling the election for Bush, and others saying important swing states, including Ohio, are still too close to call.
MSNBC and Fox News called Ohio for Bush, giving him 269 electoral votes, one shy of victory. CNN, The New York Times and Knight Ridder News Service said, however, that Ohio is too close to call. The Kerry-Edwards campaign refused to concede the state until all the votes are counted.
Bush won the important electoral votes from Florida and Nevada, while Pennsylvania went to Kerry. Several other swing states, such as New Mexico and Iowa had not been called for either candidate at press time. Some news organizations had also projected Kerry to win Wisconsin.
New Mexico was shown as leaning toward Bush but was waiting on absentee ballots.
Wisconsin could still be called at any time, and Iowa and New Mexico won't be called until later today.
While Bush did not out-and-out take Ohio, Bush took Missouri, winning 54 percent of the vote. Kerry took 46 percent. The Libertarian Party candidate, Michael Badnarik, and the Constitution Party candidate, Michael Peroutka, received less than 1 percent each.
Bush took all of the state's 11 electoral votes.
While Missouri went for Bush by an eight-point margin, Boone County's votes were almost perfectly tied. Bush won the county by 35 votes, getting 37,515 votes to Kerry's 37,480.
Former Vice President Al Gore won Boone County in 2000 by 388 votes.
"Obviously, Missouri is still Bush country," said Missouri Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca. "He represents common sense Missouri values and the people of Missouri responded with an impressive victory. The people of Missouri supported Bush's call for a strong national defense and tax relief that has resulted in the creation of 2 million jobs in the last year."
Sloca said this victory would open many doors for the people of Missouri.
"The president's victory means more jobs, more opportunities, a safe Missouri and a place where Missouri values can flourish," he said.
Scott Cristal, Boone County Democratic Central Committee spokesman, said, even though Bush won Missouri, the presidential race is too close to call.
"In the last few days, the race tightened up tremendously," Cristal said. "We will just have to wait and see. There is still a definite possibility of a victory for Kerry."