House District 97
Safe R. Dan Schaefer (D) against David Robertson (R).
Last successful model check: Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT. Site-wide published figures last changed: Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT. Source verification dates differ from calculation dates.
Share, cite or print this briefing
Print preserves this page’s published figures and source dates. Election-night projections are on a separate page.
Missouri Election, House District 97, published forecast Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT. https://www.missourielection.com/district/house/97. Pre-election model estimate; sources and uncertainty on the page.
Model forecast: chance of winning
These are model win chances, not poll results. Estimated vote share appears separately below.
Dan Schaefer (D)Wins in fewer than 1 of every 100 simulated elections.
David Robertson (R)Wins in more than 99 of every 100 simulated elections.
Estimated vote share and district context
- R+18Projected marginexpected 41.1% of the two-party vote for the Democrat; seat error sd 1.9%
- D +11Shift since the last resultvs R+29 in 2024, the last general on these lines
- R+252024 district leangovernor-weighted: half governor, a quarter each president and US Senate
- Solid R, 99% RState Navigate, Nov 2, 2026independent rating, for comparison
Forecast: this site, 100,000 runs. Lean: 2024 precinct results allocated to the 2022 district plan. Independent forecasts are dated and linked below.
Where this seat sits
Next more Republican
Next more Democratic
Every House seat from the safest Republican to the safest Democratic, in the forecast of Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT. The heavy rule is two-thirds (109 of 163).
The race
- Democrat
- Dan Schaefer
- Republican
- David Robertson
- Incumbent
- None. Open seat: the last representative is lost primary.
- Held by
- Republican after the last election
- Rating
- Safe R: the favoured party wins in >99% of simulations (Safe is 97% or more, Likely 85 to 97, Lean 65 to 85, else Toss-up)
Candidates: Secretary of State certified list. Incumbent and open-seat reason: Ballotpedia and the Missouri House and Senate rosters. Incumbent text was entered by hand where the sources disagreed; see the methodology’s decisions log.
Current member
David Casteel (Republican)
In the House since 2022. Not on the 2026 ballot for this seat: it is an open seat.
Committees: Commerce, Chairman; Fiscal Review, Vice-Chairman; Economic Development; Ethics; Financial Institutions; and 2 more.
Representative David Casteel, a Republican, represents part of Jefferson County (District 97) in the Missouri House of Representatives. He was elected to his first two-year term in November 2022.
Missouri legislature member pages (house.mo.gov, senate.mo.gov), collected Sep 7, 2026 through the PROMO roster. Whether the member is on the ballot comes from this site’s own incumbent record for the seat.
How the district voted in 2024
The Democratic share of the two-party vote inside these district lines in the three 2024 statewide races, and the margin it implies. The forecast’s lean weights the governor race at one half and the other two at one quarter each (decision D-12).
| 2024 race | Dem two-party share | Margin |
|---|---|---|
| President | 36.6% | R+27 |
| Governor | 36.2% | R+28 |
| US Senate | 40.8% | R+18 |
| Composite | 37.5% | R+25 |
Secretary of State precinct results, allocated to the 2022 district plans (Missouri Office of Administration). Two-party share leaves out third-party and write-in votes.
Legislative results on the current map
Democratic share of the two-party vote, which leaves out other candidates. Legislative results: Secretary of State, 2016 to 2024; the dashed line marks the new district map first used in 2022, so earlier points describe different ground. The dotted line is the district’s 2024 lean from the statewide races. The last point is this site’s forecast, with a bar for the 80% range (the 10th to the 90th percentile of the simulated share). Forecast of Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT.
| Year | Democrat | Republican | Dem votes | Rep votes | Other | Dem two-party share | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | None | David Casteel | 0 | 9,313 | 0 | Uncontested | Republican |
| 2024 | Dan Schaefer | David Casteel (inc.) | 6,309 | 11,459 | 0 | 35.5% | Republican |
Secretary of State official results. How the past result enters the forecast is explained under “Why this forecast” below.
Earlier results, on the old map
District lines changed in 2022. These 2016 to 2020 results are for the district that carried this number on the previous map, which may cover different ground. They are not used by the forecast.
| Year | Democrat | Republican | Dem votes | Rep votes | Other | Dem two-party share | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | None | John McCaherty (inc.) | 0 | 11,516 | 3,966 | Uncontested | Republican |
| 2018 | Mike Revis (inc.) | Mary Elizabeth Coleman | 6,232 | 8,045 | 0 | 43.7% | Republican |
| 2020 | None | Mary Elizabeth Coleman (inc.) | 0 | 14,539 | 0 | Uncontested | Republican |
Our forecast
Forecast of Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT: how often the Democrat’s two-party share fell in each point of the range across 100,000 simulated elections, expected 41.1%. The win chances are counted from the same simulations.
Independent forecasters’ published assessments appear below for comparison; their ratings are not this site’s model estimate. How the model works, and how it did on 2022 and 2024. The Senate.
Why this forecast
Dan Schaefer (D) is expected to take 41.1% of the two-party vote against David Robertson (R). The model starts from how the district voted in 2024’s statewide races, 37.5%, and adjusts:
| Part of the expected share | Effect |
|---|---|
| How the district voted in 2024’s statewide races | 37.5% |
| The national mood | +3.3 pts |
| St. Louis congressional polls | +0.5 pts |
| House races against that lean, 2024 | −0.4 pts |
| College graduates in the district | +0.3 pts |
| District polls | +0.2 pts |
| How this seat’s last race ran against expectations | −0.2 pts |
| Smaller adjustments | −0.1 pts |
| Expected Democratic share | 41.1% |
- Democrats are polling better nationally than they did in 2024. The model moves every seat by the same statewide amount for that (+3.3 pts), less than the national change, because Missouri’s House vote has historically moved a bit over half as much as the nation’s (decision D-03).
- Polls of the St. Louis congressional race ran 2.1 pts more Democratic than its fundamentals. The model reads that as a slightly better statewide mood (+0.31 pts) plus +0.19 pts for districts like this one.
- In 2024, Missouri House races ran below what districts with this statewide vote would be expected to give: −0.4 pts.
- 6.1 pts fewer adults hold a bachelor’s degree than in the average House district. In 2022 and 2024, districts like that voted more Democratic for the legislature than their statewide-race vote: +0.3 pts.
- District polls, shared part: the Senate-district polls (SD 8 and SD 30) ran more Democratic than the model expected in those seats, and the model reads part of that as a statewide and regional mood: +0.18 pts here.
- The seat ran 0.4 pts less Democratic than expected in 2024, but without the same incumbent on the ballot the model keeps only 40% of that (−0.2 pts).
Across 100,000 simulated elections the Democratic share falls between 36.8% and 45.4% eight times in ten. The range is wider than usual because it has no incumbent.
The Democrat finishes ahead in about 720 of 100,000 simulated elections.
What the model does not know. Two Senate-district polls (SD 8, SD 30) are used as noisy observations (D-25); there are no House-district polls. Candidates’ fundraising, local news and endorsements do not change legislative expected vote shares. Recorded defensive committee spending can widen uncertainty in selected seats without moving the expected share (D-27). Outside ratings are shown for comparison only (D-09); third-party candidates are ignored (D-08).
Independent forecasts
Other forecasters’ published assessments, kept separate from this site’s model. Sources cover different sets of districts.
- State Navigate, Nov 2, 2026
- Solid R, 99% R · 1% published chance of a Democratic win
Campaign finance context
No candidate-account record is provided for this district. Committee records have their own reporting periods and sources, shown below, and may be later. Candidate accounts and committee activity are separate; these figures do not measure votes or a candidate’s chance of winning. Missing amounts are not zero.
Committee spending by reporting period
- HRCC: $14K; 2026-10-01..22 (8-day). Side recorded by source: R.
Reported source: MOScout 2026-10-27. Record collected: Nov 2, 2026. Individual filing not linked.
File-level 8-day summary attribution: Missouri Ethics Commission 8-day reports, as transcribed by Missouri Scout, Oct 27, 2026. Other records use their own reported sources above. Collection dates do not establish independent verification. Figures cover the records provided, not necessarily every committee or filing. Download the published finance records.
Candidate experience: scores, evidence and limits
This is a recorded model-input classification, not a judgment of competence or an endorsement. Scale: 0 means no qualifying office or same-seat run recorded; 1 minor elected office or a qualifying previous run; 2 substantial local office or former state legislator; 3 sitting state legislator. A zero does not prove someone has no public-service experience. Missing scores remain unknown.
Compiled Nov 1, 2026. These are the input compiler’s records and source links; they are not a claim every linked biography was independently verified today.
No candidate-experience record is available for this district. That does not mean either candidate has zero experience.
Experience scoring decisions · Report a factual correction with a source
Published versions and source checks
Candidate experience coverage
The candidate-experience scoring notes report that some Ballotpedia checks relied on search snippets, not full pages.
Last archived district record: Nov 3, 5:57 pm CT. This bundle matches the current published files. No district fields changed between the two latest archived versions.
Latest archived snapshot (JSON) · Full seats (CSV) · File checksums and provenance · Previous record (Nov 3, 12:24 pm CT)
Full immutable district records begin at this baseline. Earlier headline history is not a full snapshot archive. Browse archive versions · Headline update history.
Sources7ShowHide
- Missouri Secretary of State, 2026 general election certified candidate list , accessed Nov 1, 2026.
- Missouri Secretary of State, official election results (grand totals, 2016 to 2024) , accessed Nov 1, 2026.
- 2024 district leans: Secretary of State precinct results for president, governor and US Senate, allocated to the 2022 House and Senate district plans (Missouri Office of Administration) , accessed Nov 1, 2026.
- Ballotpedia, Missouri House of Representatives elections, 2026 (incumbents, open seats, district pages) , accessed Nov 1, 2026.
- State Navigate, published forecast , forecast dated Nov 2, 2026.
- On Point Politics, published forecast , forecast dated Nov 1, 2026.
- Missouri House (house.mo.gov) and Senate (senate.mo.gov) member pages: name, party, first-elected year, leadership, committees and biography, collected through the PROMO legislator roster (RavBogard/promo-legislators) , accessed Sep 7, 2026.