Sergent secures District 57 House seat

Published 12:32 am Wednesday, November 4, 2026

By Joe Andrews

Voters elected Knob Noster’s Matt Sergent to the Missouri House of Representatives to represent District 57 during the Tuesday, Nov. 3, General Election.

Unofficial results indicate he received 73% of the vote or 9,024 votes, while Democratic candidate Michael D. Walbom, of Knob Noster, received 26.961% or 3,331 votes.​

The district represents portions of Johnson, Pettis and Benton Counties. Its coverage area includes Knob Noster, Kingsville, Chilhowee, Leeton, Green Ridge, La Monte, Cole Camp, Lincoln and Warsaw.

“I’m excited,” Sergent said. “I’m just excited to get to work for the people of the 57th district. I tell you, you just can’t put it into words sometimes. But it’s awesome that the people were supporting us for everything that we did – getting out and knocking on doors and getting in front of people at every event we could get to.”

Sergent takes over for Windsor’s Roger Reedy, who had been in office since 2019.

“It makes me proud,” Sergent said. “It makes me happy. It kind of sounds egotistical, but I know I can handle the job and that I can do what we need to do for our district and for the people of Missouri. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people, especially in our district, and a lot of people in our state. I feel like there’s a lot of experience from the outgoing Roger Reedy, Brad Pollitt and those guys that have done it before that I can use their wisdom and call on them anytime.”

Sergent also saw portions of the legislative process from friend and mentor Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. Hoskins also previously served as a state representative before eventually moving up to state senator and secretary of state.

“We’ve been friends, but we’ve been through it with him as representative, senator and now secretary of state,” Sergent said. “We’ve been able to see the things that he’s done. I think more of, not the fact that he’s helped me, just helping me in my position, but being able to see how he handles things. Being able to have watched over the years and see the pressure that he’s been under and how he makes it look easy, and the fact that you just got to be calm and willing to listen. That’s probably done more of it than him helping me with my actual running.”

This marked the second time that Sergent ran for a state house seat. In 2024, he faced off with Brandon Phelps in the District 54 primary.

Phelps went on to earn the Republican nomination and eventually the seat. District 54’s landscape primarily includes Warrensburg, Centerview and Holden.

“We got a little more knowledge,” Sergent said. “I think this time around – we’re a really rural district (in District 57), but I bet we hit somewhere between 2,500 to 3,000 doors. Then we were able to hit a lot of events. Then we started earlier.”

Sergent previously held a position on the Warrensburg School Board from 2019 to 2025.

​“I learned a lot in the six years on the school board,” Sergent said. “I cherish that time being on the school board with education. That is one of the things that I do want to work on. I don’t believe that $40,000 starting wage is great, obviously, when you just got done with four years of college, but I know that it takes heart. It is a job. You go into a nursing program; you go into a lot of these jobs that they don’t start out well. They can end up well, but they don’t start out great. It is something that will mean a lot to me over the whole, hopefully eight years, and that is my plan for the whole time. I want to work on education.”

As a small business owner, Sergent hopes to bring a business mindset to statewide budget conversations.

“Being a small business owner for 24 years, I would like to help with the budget,” Sergent said. “I can’t say that I can solve things for the budget, but I do like to believe that I can do things being a business owner – maybe I will see something that some people don’t see and try to help Missouri with so we don’t have to have more taxes necessarily.”

The 104th session of the Missouri General Assembly is slated to begin Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2027.

Joe Andrews can be reached at 660-747-8123.