Gary Wester
Gary Wester (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Missouri House of Representatives to represent District 107. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Wester completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Gary Wester earned a graduate degree from the University of Missouri in 1992. His career experience includes working as a chemist.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Missouri House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Missouri House of Representatives District 107
Incumbent Mark Matthiesen defeated Gary Wester in the general election for Missouri House of Representatives District 107 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mark Matthiesen (R) | 60.5 | 11,923 |
 | Gary Wester (D)  | 39.5 | 7,779 | |
| Total votes: 19,702 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 107
Gary Wester advanced from the Democratic primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 107 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Gary Wester | 100.0 | 1,411 |
| Total votes: 1,411 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 107
Incumbent Mark Matthiesen advanced from the Republican primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 107 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mark Matthiesen | 100.0 | 3,115 |
| Total votes: 3,115 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wester in this election.
2018
See also: Missouri House of Representatives elections, 2018
General election
General election for Missouri House of Representatives District 102
Ron Hicks defeated John Foster in the general election for Missouri House of Representatives District 102 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ron Hicks (R) | 60.2 | 10,883 |
 | John Foster (D) | 39.8 | 7,184 | |
| Total votes: 18,067 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 102
John Foster defeated Gary Wester in the Democratic primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 102 on August 7, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Foster | 50.2 | 1,578 |
| Gary Wester | 49.8 | 1,565 | |
| Total votes: 3,143 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 102
Ron Hicks defeated Bryan Cooper in the Republican primary for Missouri House of Representatives District 102 on August 7, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ron Hicks | 50.0 | 2,282 |
 | Bryan Cooper | 50.0 | 2,278 | |
| Total votes: 4,560 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Gary Wester completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wester's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Gary grew up in south St. Louis, the third son of six children, where he attended parochial schools from grades K-12, learned to play hockey, played baseball, umpired CYC baseball, and worked his way to become an Eagle Scout. He continued his education at Mizzou, earning a BA in Zoology, then continuing and completing his education with both BA and MS degrees in Chemistry at UMSL.
During his career, Gary held many positions with several companies and organizations that provided him a unique vision for investigation and improvement: working in wildlife conservation, aluminum and aerospace industries, as well as, research chemistry. He is now retired after working as a validation and compliance professional in the pharmaceutical industry.
Gary and his wife, Jan, have been married almost 50 years and have two children and two grandchildren. After living many places in and out of the state of Missouri over the years, Gary and Jan have been settled in O'Fallon, Missouri for the past seventeen years.
Currently, Gary spends his retirement volunteering with the Missouri Master Naturalist program, Stream Team, and was elected to the University of Missouri St Charles Extension Council where he now serves as the treasurer.
- Quality, accessible, and affordable health care is every Missourian’s right. But every year Missouri families must make increasingly difficult decisions for how they prioritize spending on prescription drugs and medical bills over the basic costs of living. At the same time, the Republican-led House has left millions of federal dollars on the table meant for expanding health care access to Missourians. Their inaction means less healthy communities, higher premiums for those with coverage, and the loss of hospitals, especially in rural areas. As your state representative, I’ll support common sense measures like expanding Medicaid, so no Missourian is forced to choose between a decent job and keeping their health care.
- Every Missouri child should have access to free, quality public education regardless of their zip code. As your representative, I will work to strengthen our public schools and fully fund our commitment to our kids. I will support universal early childhood education, because investing in our kids from an early age is the best way for us to invest in our future. I will also support investment in higher education and workforce training, to ensure all Missourians have the opportunity to gain the skills to compete in our economy.
- Every person should have the autonomy to make decisions about their body and their life. Republicans have passed extreme abortion bans in recent years, limiting access to abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or medical need. Mothers die from childbirth in Missouri in numbers far greater than the rest of the industrialized world, and instead of promoting health care, Missouri legislators have placed burdensome restrictions on it.
Restoring reproductive freedom and protecting it from any limitations by the state.
Using taxpayer money only for public education and not funneling millions of dollars to private institutions not subject to legal oversight.
Expanding renewable energy creating good paying union jobs.
Listening to constituents and not lobbyists.
Answering to my constituents.
Assassination of President John F Kennedy, I was 11.
The executive branch and legislative branch should be able to work together to move our state forward.
Fully funding public education for the 21st century. Presently, schools are funded as though it is 2005. We need to pay teachers a living wage so that they stay in their vocation.
Previous political experience is beneficial but that experience sometimes gets in the way of serving the people not just the largest donors.
Relationships and compromise are the key to enacting legislation that is most beneficial to the majority of Missourians.
Stuart Symington
Allowing medical practitioners to perform all approved medical procedures.
Energy, environment, and conservation.
We have Sunshine Laws on the books that the current political party ignores. Let's work on getting compliance with those laws first and then we will not have to worry about transparency.
The state should enact legislation to get dark money out of politics.
No changes to the initiative petition process.
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Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 8, 2024
