JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republicans were expected to hold on to their sizable majorities in the Missouri House and Senate in Tuesday’s elections, but Democrats hoped to win enough seats to deny them veto-proof powers.
Republicans were seeking to retain supermajorities of at least two-thirds of the seats in each chamber, a threshold that allows them to override vetoes of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon without having to get any support from Democratic lawmakers.

Half of the 34 Senate seats and all 163 House seats are up for election, though only a portion of those featured competitive races.
Before the voting even began, Republicans were assured of keeping a Senate majority because of their number of unopposed candidates and incumbents not up for re-election. In the House, Republicans were assured of holding at least one-third of the seats and Democrats one-quarter of the seats because of unopposed candidates.

It takes 18 Senate seats and 82 House seats for a political party to hold a majority. A two-thirds majority requires at least 23 Senate seats and 109 House seats. Republicans just barely exceeded those marks during the past year, controlling up 24 Senate seats and 110 House seats at any given time.

During the 2014 session, Republicans used their large majorities to cut income tax rates, lengthen the mandatory abortion waiting period and enact a training program for teachers to carry concealed guns in classrooms. They overrode Nixon’s vetoes in each case but never by a purely partisan vote, because they always picked up support from at least one Democratic lawmaker.

Republicans were hopeful that Tuesday’s elections would give them an even larger majority for the 2015 session, which would allow them more leeway to enact their agenda even if some GOP lawmakers were absent or disagreed on certain votes.

If Democrats are able to gain just a few seats, they could force Republicans to compromise more often in order to assure there is enough support to pass bills that are potential veto targets.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill had contributed $590,000 to the Missouri Democratic State Committee heading into the final week before election with the intent of helping to finance Democratic state legislative candidates. Other top Democratic officials, including Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster, also had contributed to the state party’s efforts.