Dave Schatz

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senate President Pro Tem-elect Dave Schatz joins Politically Speaking to talk about issues that may arise during the 2019 legislative session.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Schatz is a Sullivan Republican who represents all of Franklin County and most of western St. Louis County. He won a contested race for president pro tem in November, meaning he’ll appoint committee chairs and direct legislation to certain committees.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Schatz’s family owns a utility contracting business. He successfully sought a vacant House seat in 2010. He then filed to run for the 26th District Senate seat in 2014, which was occupied at the time by Sen. Brian Nieves.</span> <a href= "http://kbia.org/post/nieves-drops-re-election-bid-sets-gop-jockeying-job"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Nieves ultimately decided against running for re-election,</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">while prominent GOPers</span> <a href= "http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/house-speaker-jones-drops-bid-senate-will-cunningham-jump"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">like former House Speaker Tim Jones</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href="http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/cunningham-not-running-county-executive-says-gop-backing-someone-else"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">former Sen. Jane Cunningham</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">chose not to challenge Schatz in the primary. This effectively handed the election to Schatz, since winning the Republican primary in the 26th District is tantamount to election.</span></p>