'Betrayal': Outrage as red state lawmakers pass gerrymandered congressional map

A newly-gerrymandered congressional map and limits on voters’ ability to amend the state constitution cleared the Missouri Senate Friday, capping two weeks of contentious debate that drew national attention.

The changes to the initiative petition process will appear on the statewide ballot next year.

The new map, designed to give Republicans control of seven of Missouri’s eight seats in Congress, now heads to Gov. Mike Kehoe for his signature. It may ultimately end up on next year’s ballot as well, with a group called People NOT Politicians Missouri announcing Friday that it will file a referendum with the secretary of state’s office to “put this deeply flawed map before Missouri voters.”

The legislature reconvened last week at the urging of President Donald Trump, who has demanded Republican-led states rework congressional districts so the party holds on to its slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm election.

The White House started pressuring Missouri Republicans to get in on the act in July, and this week phoned in to the state Senate GOP caucus meeting. The initiative petition changes were added to the agenda by Kehoe, with Republicans arguing the current system makes it too easy to change the Missouri Constitution.

The Missouri House passed both measures Tuesday. The Senate gave them final approval Friday morning 21-11 after moving to shut down a Democratic filibuster following four hours of debate. Republican Sens. Lincoln Hough of Springfield and Mike Moon of Ash Grove joined nine Democrats in opposition to the new maps and the initiative petition changes.

Democrats say both proposals are a power grab by the Republican supermajority and a Trump-inspired assault on democracy. And they’ve denounced changes to the Senate’s rules this week designed to undermine any possible opposition.

“This is a cynical maneuver designed to put a thumb on the scale of democracy, to ensure a predetermined outcome regardless of the will of the people,” said state Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat. “It is a betrayal of our duty to represent the people, and not a political party.”

Congressional map

Missouri has eight congressional districts, with six currently represented by Republicans. Cleaver represents the 5th District, which includes most of Kansas City and Jackson County.

The 5th District, which has been represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005, would be carved up, with portions attached to the 4th and 6th Districts. Heavily Republican areas stretching along the Missouri River to Boone County, would be added to the remaining Kansas City portions.

The intended result is a map where Republicans hold seven of the state’s eight seats.

Revising congressional district lines occurs every 10 years, after the allocation of seats following the federal census. The Missouri Constitution mandates it but is silent on whether lawmakers have the power to do so at other times.

Democrats argue it is unconstitutional to draw another map before the next census is complete.

The Missouri NAACP filed a lawsuit in Cole County arguing the governor’s decision to call a special session was unconstitutional. Cleaver has also promised to go to court to challenge the new map.

Republicans say critics are misreading the constitution and are confident the new map will survive any legal challenge.

State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said Friday that the map undermines decades of work to reunite a community divided at Troost Avenue, the line separating Black and white sections of Kansas City when housing segregation was legal.

The GOP-backed map, Nurrenbern noted, splits Kansas City down Troost once again.

“Somebody in D.C. sought to resurrect the Mason Dixon Line of Kansas City,” she said. “Somebody in D.C. decided to split the 4th and the 5th congressional districts down Troost.”

Moon, one of only a handful of Republicans who have publicly opposed the new map, expressed concern Friday about legislators not being allowed to have any input in the process.

“I ask myself what President Trump would do if he were in this body,” Moon said, “and someone told him, ‘this is all you’re going to get, and you vote yes, sit down and shut up.’”

For those seeking to repeal the map through the referendum process, they must collect 100,000 signatures in 90 days to put the map on the November 2026 ballot. Of the 27 times a referendum has been placed on the Missouri ballot, voters have rejected actions by the General Assembly all but twice.

“This fight is not over,” Elsa Rainey, a spokeswoman for People NOT Politicians Missouri, said in an emailed statement. “Missouri voters — not politicians — will have the final say.”

If they collect enough signatures, the legislature would have to move the referendum election to another date. That’s because local election officials say congressional districts must be finalized by May 26 for ballots to be ready in time for the August primary.

The last time the referendum process was successfully deployed was in 2018, when labor unions successfully repealed a right-to-work law. The Missouri AFL-CIO has signaled it is likely to assist in a referendum over the maps.

In 2019, the secretary of state’s office used procedural maneuvers to derail a referendum campaign that sought to overturn newly-passed restrictions on abortion. The move sparked a lawsuit, and in 2022 the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the laws the secretary of state used to obstruct the citizen-initiated referendum process were unconstitutional.

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins noted that the 2022 court ruling means signatures can be counted as valid even if they are collected prior to the certification of a ballot title, “since otherwise the full process could eat up over half of their available gathering time.”

But while People NOT Politicians Missouri planned to file a referendum soon after the Senate gave final passage to the map Friday, Hoskins believes they must wait until the governor signs the bill.

“Based on review of recent referendum submittals, our inclination is that the petitioners would need to at least wait for the governor’s signature,” Rachael Dunn, communications director for the secretary of state, said in an email. “Until he signs it, there is the notional possibility (however unrealistic) that he could veto it and so it would not formally be considered law pre-signature.”

The governor has 45 days to sign the bill.

Chuck Hatfield, a veteran Democratic attorney from Jefferson City, said the constitution reserves the right for citizens to reject by referendum “any act of the General Assembly.” The governor is not involved in the process at all.

“The referendum is on the act of the General Assembly, not on a law signed by the governor,” Hatfield said. “It is appropriate to start a referendum process as soon as the General Assembly acts. If the governor later vetoes the measure, the referendum will, of course, not be necessary.”

The secretary of state, Hatfield said, has no right to make decisions on when a referendum may be started.

Initiative Petition

Missouri is one of 24 states that allow citizen initiative petitions. They can be used to either amend the constitution or change state law, though the path to successfully doing so is often arduous and expensive, requiring tens of thousands of signatures to even land on the ballot.

In recent years, Missourians have used the initiative petition process to legalize abortion and recreational marijuana use, as well as expand Medicaid eligibility.

Republicans have fumed at the success of progressive ballot initiatives for years, arguing they are bankrolled by out-of-state special interests.

When the bill cleared the Missouri House, Republican state Rep. Ed Lewis said amending the state constitution has become too easy. Any changes, he said, should have “broad consensus across the state.”

The legislation approved Friday would require constitutional amendments put on the ballot by Missouri voters to attain both a simple majority statewide and a majority in all eight congressional districts in order to pass.

Based on last year’s election results, that change would mean as few as 5% of voters could defeat any ballot measure. The new requirements would only apply to citizen-led initiative petitions, not amendments placed on the ballot by the legislature.

“If you’re a politician in Jefferson City, you become more powerful after this passes,” said state Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat.

The question will go on the 2026 ballot and require a simple majority to approve.

Sam Licklider, a lobbyist for the Missouri Association of Realtors, told lawmakers this week that his organization will oppose the proposal on the ballot.

In 2010, the realtors raised $4.4 million to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit sales taxes on real estate transfers. That was followed in 2016 by a $5.6 million campaign to prevent lawmakers from extending the sales tax to services.

“We are well positioned,” Licklider said, “to ensure our arguments reach the public.”

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.