Updated 8:53 a.m. on Nov. 4. 

Incumbent Mike Bost has won another term in office as the Congressman of Illinois’ 12th District, according to the Associated Press.

With 98% of Illinois precincts reporting, including all of Jackson County, Bost defeated Bost, a Republican, defeated Democratic challenger Raymond Lenzi in a land slide. 

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“I could not be prouder of the campaign we ran – a campaign focused on our record and our positive vision for Southern Illinois. Congratulations to Ray Lenzi and his team for a hard-fought campaign,” Bost said in a press release on Tuesday night. “Serving the people of Southern Illinois in Congress has been the honor of a lifetime, and I thank the people of this district for giving me the honor of representing them for another two years in Congress.”

Bost received a total of 181, 839 votes, 61.2%. Lenzi received 115, 468 votes, according to the Associated Press.

Lenzi informed the Daily Egyptian on Tuesday night that he conceded from the contest and said “[Bost] was gracious in his response to me.”

Bost said he plans to continue to focus on his work with the three House Committees he serves on: Transportation Infrastructure, Veteran’s Affairs and Agriculture. 

“My whole [business] is if we can do that, there’s a lot of things that need to be done with the VA including a lot of modernization and providing modern services to our veterans and making sure we deal with the 20 veterans a day who are committing suicide,” Bost said. “We’ve been dealing with this for many years and it always stays at 20. The thing is, only six of those have ever even been to the VA.” 

Bost also said he wants to move forward from partisan bickering to pass a transportation infrastructure bill to improve roads, bridges and railroads. In addition, Bost said he wants to continue to work on an Agriculture bill to address key issues. 

Lenzi said he is retired and plans to finish the book he has been writing, as well as enjoy his retirement with his wife. 

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“I just want to say that we thank all the voters, the donors and volunteers who supported our campaign,” Lenzi said. “We appreciate them very much. We stood for the things we believe in.”

Editor Brooke Buerck can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at bbuerck25. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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