Missouri's 7th District Primary

Republican incumbent Eric Burlison faces two primary challengers in the Missouri 7th District primary 2026 on Aug. 4, when voters across the southwestern corner of the state pick nominees for all three parties on the same day. The real contest is on the Republican side; the Democratic and Libertarian parties each have a single candidate running unopposed.

Missouri's 7th Congressional District covers the southwestern tip of the state, anchored by Springfield, Missouri's third-largest city, and stretching across the Ozarks region. The district holds one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Missouri runs a traditional partisan primary: each major party holds its own separate contest, voters participate in the primary of their chosen party, and the top vote-getter in each advances to the general election. There is no top-two system and no ranked-choice component. The Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian primaries all take place Aug. 4, with the general election scheduled for Nov. 3.

Burlison holds the seat and is running for reelection, so this is not an open-seat race. Three Republicans compete for their party's nomination; the Democratic and Libertarian nominees will be decided without a contest. Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Inside Elections all rate the seat Solid Republican, and prediction markets place the Republican nominee's probability of winning the general election at 95.4 percent, a figure that underscores how thoroughly the district leans toward the GOP.

The Candidates

Eric Burlison

Eric Burlison won the seat in 2022 and has represented the district since January 2023. A Springfield native and software engineer by profession, he sits on two House committees in the 119th Congress: the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. His legislative record includes introducing the No Exceptions for Non-Citizens Voting Act and the Smart Space Act of 2026. Turning Point Action has given him a score above 95, and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has endorsed his healthcare legislation.

Grayson Hunt

Grayson Hunt is the younger of Burlison's two Republican challengers. Born Nov. 3, 2000, Hunt is a lifelong Ozarks resident who most recently managed operations at a lending company. He frames his campaign as a course correction against Washington dysfunction, with a platform built around border security, trade and vocational education, agriculture, and veterans' issues.

John Casey

John Casey filed his candidacy in late 2025 under the committee "Vote John Casey." His platform is fiscally conservative, calling for eliminating property taxes, removing healthcare taxes, and cutting foreign aid and government spending. No detailed professional biography was independently verifiable in public sources before publication.

Missi Hesketh

Missi Hesketh is the sole Democratic candidate and is making her second run for the seat after appearing on the 2024 ballot. She has been active in anti-authoritarian organizing, including participation in the "No Kings" mobilization effort. Her platform centers on removing large-money influence from politics, expanding affordable housing, and reducing government waste. She had raised approximately $30,000 as of the most recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) reporting period.

Kevin Craig

Kevin Craig is a perennial Libertarian candidate in Missouri's 7th District. He describes himself as a "Christian Anarchist" and campaigns on a platform he calls "Liberty Under God." Craig advanced from the Libertarian primary in both 2022 and 2024 and is running again in 2026.

The Money Behind the Race

Outside spending in the Missouri 7th Congressional District election has been negligible. The Freedom Caucus Fund is the only outside group that has reported independent expenditures in the race, spending $5,631 in support of Burlison through June 30. No communication costs have been reported. No outside money has been directed against any candidate, and no outside funds have been reported in support of or against any other candidate in the race.

Burlison is the only candidate with any outside money behind him. The $5,631 from the Freedom Caucus Fund represents the entirety of outside spending in the race. All five active candidates combined have raised a total of $1,537,596 in candidate committee receipts, per FEC records, though no per-candidate breakdown beyond Hesketh's approximately $30,000 was available in the data provided.

The modest outside-spending figure reflects a primary that has attracted little attention from national groups. No party-level breakdown of outside spending is available in the reported data: all of it flows to a Republican candidate.

Ratings vs. Odds

Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Inside Elections each rate Missouri's 7th Congressional District as Solid Republican. Cook and Sabato issued that rating as of July 16; Inside Elections' rating is current through June 30. The consensus Solid Republican designation is dated July 23.

On prediction markets, Kalshi gives the Republican nominee a 95.4 percent probability of winning the general election, with Democrats at 4.6 percent. A total of 833 contracts had traded on that market as of July 26. The ratings and the market odds point in the same direction: whoever wins the Aug. 4 Republican primary will enter the general election as a heavy favorite.

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