Sixteen years ago, Bob Onder lost a bitterly contested congressional primary to Blaine Luetkemeyer.

Since that time, Onder’s political trajectory took plenty of twists and turns — including becoming a key member of Senate Republicans who openly fought with GOP leadership. But after beating his former Senate colleague Kurt Schaefer in an August primary, Onder could very well be on his way to Washington, D.C. next year as Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District representative.

“At the end of the day, I think our conservative message, our America First message, did break through, and the voters decided by a healthy margin to choose me as the Republican nominee,” Onder said on an episode of the Politically Speaking Podcast. “47% of the vote in a seven way race is not bad.”

Onder is taking on Democrat Bethany Mann to represent the 3rd District, which takes parts of the St. Louis area and portions of central Missouri. Mann recorded an episode of Politically Speaking that will air later this week.