Incumbent Congressman Mike Bost won his reelection this evening against challenger CJ Baricevic.
After 2 years in Congress Mike Bost will be returning for two more and already has a plan.
Bost says one of the first things on his agenda is to help get southern Illinoisans back to work at the coalmines.
“We need to reduce our govt regulations to make sure that we can put people back to work in the coal mines and keep the coal mines that we have working.”
The way Bost wants to accomplish this is by working with the new administration that he feels Republicans have had a hard time doing.
“We’ve got to work with this administration to move forward to get everything done that we possibly can and walk away from what we’ve not been able to do over the last 8 years and working together.”
Bost says Republicans in congress have put together a to get America back on track.
It focuses on 6 key items, the economy, National security, poverty, the constitution, health care and tax reform.
They can be found at “A better way dot GOP”
“These are vitally important issues that we need to work forward to work on.”
Bost says he felt the campaign started the day he took office after defeating incumbent Bill Enyart 2 years ago.
“This campaign because it was targeted by Nancy Pelosi off the very start from the first day is sworn in it is vitally important that we kept the ball rolling and we went out and made sure that we were in constant communication with our constituents and I think they’ve shown that by their vote tonight.”
As the current incumbent Bost felt it was a different type of race compared to the last one.
“This time I was coming at it as an incumbent so I would say yes it’s difficult from the fact that I’ve got a record to defend where last time it was I had my state rep record but it was going against the incumbent and now to have to defend it as an incumbent you’ve got to stand up and show why you did the things you did over the last 20 months.”
Bost says without the support of friends, family and supporters in the district, things might not have gone in his favor.
I can’t say enough, the people that hit the streets, the people that are out there knocking on doors everyday, the staff that was running the campaign the people on the phone banks and just people talking in the shops, coffee shops, beauty shops and barber shops around the district, what great friends your just amazed when its as big as 11 and one third counties and people are out there working and talking like that.”
