Election Day Predictions

Hillary Clinton gives a speech to supporters. (Shutterstock.com)

By Anthony Kristensen, Newspaper Co-Editor-In-Chief

Well, the end is finally here. The 2016 election is finally coming to a close, and with it, new leadership will be taking charge of the country and leading the free world. Now with the election coming to a close, I have decided to lay out my predictions for some of the presidential, U.S. Senate and Missouri gubernatorial elections.

Presidential Election: Donald Trump wins Missouri, Hillary Clinton wins the election

Despite his recent gains in the light of the renewed email scandal, Donald Trump simply doesn’t have a chance to beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College. Clinton simply carries too many states, as many projections have her at the 270 magic number even without the swing states. The electoral map will likely look like it did after the 2012 election between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, were President Obama won quite handily.

On a local level, however, Trump will easily win Missouri, as the conservative base of the state will will turn out overwhelmingly for Trump, Clinton simply cannot win Missouri.

U.S. Senate: Sen. Roy Blunt will win a tight race against Jason Kander

In a race that has received national attention for how close it has been, incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt will narrowly defeat his Democratic challenger, Jason Kander. In what was supposed to be an easy win for the incumbent, Kander exploded onto the scene after releasing an ad of him putting together an AR-15 while blindfolded, appealing to conservatives as he touted a pro-Second Amendment record.

Also, Blunt’s biggest setback is seemingly that he is seen as the Washington insider in a year that the insiders are seen as untrustworthy. As Donald Trump has made the idea of political insiders being given more influence a nightmare for many across the country, it seems to have had the unintended consequence of making incumbent Republicans, like Sen. Blunt, seem like the enemy that Trump has painted.

Overall, in what used to be a landslide in favor of the incumbent turned nail-biter, Sen. Blunt should be able to hang on to his Senate seat, despite the incredible gains by Kander.

Missouri Governor: Chris Koster wins a tighter-than-expected race against Eric Greitens

A few weeks ago, it seemed as though Chris Koster had the gubernatorial race in the bag. However, in recent weeks, Eric Greitens has closed a massive gap, perhaps unsurprisingly, as the elections this year have been painted by political outsiders trying to ‘shake up’ the government that has been led by insiders that have left the average citizen behind. However, his gains won’t be enough as Koster should end up winning the gubernatorial election by a very narrow margin.