Missouri GOP caves on its gerrymandered map crusade — for now

Missouri Republicans are pressing on with a federal appeals court fight over the state's gerrymandered congressional map, even though the battle over this year's election is effectively over — a tacit admission that this round of litigation is really about setting rules for elections years down the road.

Rep. Bob Onder, state Sen. Rick Brattin and two voters filed the Eighth Circuit appeal September 8, seeking to overturn the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling that blocked Republicans' 2025 gerrymander, known as House Bill 1 or the Missouri First Map. But by the time the appeal landed, the fight over November's ballot had already been settled: the U.S. Supreme Court sided with map opponents on September 10, and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, after being hauled before Missouri's high court on a contempt threat, publicly conceded he'd comply.

"In accordance with that order, my Office is directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map," Hoskins said in a statement following the Supreme Court's ruling.

That timeline leaves Onder's ongoing appeal chasing a question that no longer affects this year's ballots at all. With the 2022 map locked in for November regardless of what the Eighth Circuit ultimately decides, any Republican win on appeal would functionally only matter for future election cycles, not the one already underway.

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, the group behind the successful referendum petition, is intervening directly in the case rather than relying on state officials to defend the older map. He suggested the Republicans behind the case have priorities beyond simply winning this year's election.

"That's not how democracy should work," von Glahn said.

The underlying dispute traces back to Hoskins' initial refusal to certify more than 300,000 voter signatures supporting a referendum on the new map, a decision the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously overturned. The new map had been drawn specifically to flip the Kansas City-based seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, pitting Brattin against him in November under the old boundaries instead.

With this year's election now proceeding under the 2022 map regardless of the outcome, the Eighth Circuit case has effectively become a fight over the ground rules for Missouri's next redistricting fight, not this one.