For Elaine Freeman Gannon, an even dozen years will be enough.
Gannon, 70, of De Soto has announced that she will not run for a second four-year term representing District 3 in the Missouri Senate in the 2024 Republican Party primary.
The district includes the southern half of Jefferson County, as well as all of Ste. Genevieve, St. Francois, Washington and Crawford counties.
She also served the maximum of four two-year terms representing District 115 in the Missouri House of Representatives. In 2020, she ran for the Senate seat.
“I’ve put a lot of thought into this,” she said. “I’m very thankful that the counties I represent have allowed me the great honor of serving as their voice in Jefferson City. But after the end of the 2023 session, I had an opportunity to reflect on my service, and I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my family, including my grandchildren, so I thought it would be best to end my time as senator after the 2024 session so I can focus on spending more time with my loved ones.”
She and her husband, Jefferson County Executive Dennis Gannon, have two grown sons and four grandchildren.
“I’ve reached the point where my family is No. 1,” she said. “Dennis and I became grandparents later in life, and I want to watch my grandchildren grow up and spend quality time with them. Dennis has always been supportive of me as a state rep and a state senator, and my cheerleader. He also understands and supports why I am not running for another term.”
A retired teacher from the De Soto School District, Elaine Gannon was elected to two three-year terms on that district’s Board of Education from 2017 to 2023.
“Serving in Jefferson City was never on my bucket list,” she said. “Some people approached me to run several times, and I said no several times. But eventually I thought about it and said yes, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. It’s truly been an honor.
“The best part of any job is the people you meet and the friends you make, and I have made several friends in Jefferson City whom I look forward to seeing each week we’re in session. It’s just like being a teacher, and the friends you make. They’re lifelong friends.”
She said the ongoing bitter factional battles in the Senate had no bearing on her decision. In 2022, she led other women senators from both parties in a filibuster to protest that chamber’s unwillingness to pass a redistricting map for U.S. House seats.
“Regardless of how the sessions have gone or will continue to go, that did not enter my mind when I was making this decision,” she said. “Each year, you hope it was a good session, and last year was a good one. My goal is to make my last one a good one, too, and hopefully pass legislation that will make Missouri a better place to live.”
She said two of her career legislative highlights came during the most recent Senate session.
“My No. 1 highlight has been ushering in SB45 last year, allowing low-income women in the state Medicaid postpartum coverage for not just the first two months after delivery, but for a full year. This was a bipartisan bill, where people from both sides of the aisle coming together. After the governor signed it, I heard from pediatricians, OB-GYN people, nurses – so many people in the medical field. That made me feel so good.”
She also cited a bill passed earlier this year with bipartisan support that requires the Missouri Department of Mental Health and the Department of Health and Human Services to sit down and come up with solutions to the problem of people under foster care and patients with disabilities entering the hospital and then, when it’s time to be released, their foster parents don’t want them back.
“They end up staying in the hospital for more than a year. Until this bill was passed, there was no plan for how to care for them. Now there will be,” she said.
Gannon said seeing such initiatives take effect is heartening.
“Yes, it feels good to know that my efforts have helped people, especially people who are the most vulnerable,” she said.
Gannon said she’s always striven to rise above partisan rancor.
“I am a Republican, but I don’t need anybody to call me a conservative Republican. I’m a Republican who’s conservative, but I have always wanted to work with everybody, not just Republicans,” she said. “Most of the bills I’ve worked on in Jefferson City I’ve worked across the aisle, not because they’re good for my party but because they’re good for the people of my district and the people of the state. That makes going to work every day a pleasure.”
She said she doesn’t know who will step up to fill her Senate seat in January 2025, but she had some recommendations for her successor.
“No. 1,” she said, “keep in mind that this job it’s not about you. It’s about the people who live in your district.
“No. 2, meet as many people who live in your district as you can. Find out what their concerns are and how you can help them.
“Next, any time you get a call from a concerned constituent, make sure you go out of your way to help them. It’s a feel-good thing, when you help a constituent with something they need help with, like an insurance issue, or a Medicaid check. Make the phone calls and try to help them.
“Finally, get along with everybody. And be humble.”
Candidate filing for the August primary election runs from Feb. 27 through March 26, 2024.
State senators are paid $36,813 per year, plus a $121 allowance each day the chamber is in session.