Early in his Senate career, Senator Rupp made a positive impact in Missouri Government. Upon entering the Senate he was quickly asked to handle several important issues facing the state. Early in 2007 several title insurance companies were operating illegally and leaving homeowners with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts due to their unscrupulous activities. Senator Rupp acted quickly and passed (SB 66) a strong sustentative reform bill to protect Missouri citizens and their most important investment, their home.

Continuing on his work from the Missouri House, Senator Rupp focused most of his efforts on the developmentally delayed and disabled children in Missouri. Working hard to bring positive reforms to Missouri's early childhood intervention program, he was once again asked to handle an issue of extreme importance for the state; the drastic increase of autism diagnosis in Missouri. Currently 1 out of every 150 children is being diagnosed on the autism spectrum. In 2007, Senator Rupp Chaired the Blue Ribbon Panel on Autism In Missouri. This panels intensive work from 2007-2008, led to the successful creation of the Missouri Autism Commission, and the creation of the Office of Autism in Missouri. He introduced and passed the senate bill (SB 768) that created the commission and then was subsequently chosen as the first to be named to the Autism Commission upon its creation. He has emerged as a true champion for families with special needs children, pushing for additional funding, services and coordination among state agencies, as well as community awareness of developmentally challenged children. As he has often said, "we have only just begun to make Missouri the nation's leader on these issues, and we still have much work to accomplish".

In 2008, Senator Rupp handled one of the most politically charged issues in recent years; illegal immigration. He had been an outspoken critic of illegal immigration for several years, even appearing on the Lou Dobbs show on CNN in 2006, and Fox News in 2007. While pushing this issue in 2008, he earned the respect of his Republican and Democrat colleagues due to his openness to listen and work for common sense solutions to this problem without straying from the strong anti illegal immigration beliefs that he and most Missourians held. At the end of the day, Missouri passed one of the toughest illegal immigration bills (SB 858) in the nation, addressing each politically sensitive area head on, but doing so without punitive grandstanding but rather with open honest civil dialogue.

2008 also brought additional national exposure to the Senator from the 2nd District of Missouri. A local tragic suicide of a teenager in Dardenne Prairie Missouri, reached nationwide attention due to the circumstances surrounding her death. The case became a rallying cry for those who had been victims of cyber stalking and harassment, and it shined the light on the complete ineffectiveness of Missouri's outdated stalking laws to protect its citizens and the new forms of communication. Senator Rupp was part of a Governor appointed task force to bring Missouri statues up to the level of protection that Missouri citizens expected and demanded to provide the tools to law enforcement to prosecute and convict those that would prey on our youth. The cyber stalking bill (SB 818) that was passed in 2008 received national attention and many other states are looking to Missouri on how to deal with this rapidly increasing problem. After appearing on the Dr. Phil show, Senator Rupp's office became the focal point for letters and calls by people from all over the world who had been victims of similar crimes.