Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent

A new survey released Thursday shows more Missourians disapprove of President Donald Trump and Gov. Mike Kehoe’s job performance than approve.

For Trump, it is the first negative approval rating in the six-year history of the St. Louis University/YouGov poll. For Kehoe, it is the first since he took office last year.

Trump has lost 19 percentage points in net approval since he took office at the start of 2025 — including 14 points since February....

The Missouri Supreme Court ordered Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to appear in person Thursday and explain why he should not be held in contempt for directing election officials to use a congressional map the court has barred him from implementing.

In the unusual late order Tuesday, the court gave Hoskins until noon Wednesday to answer a motion for contempt from People Not Politicians, a political action committee that forced a referendum on a map gerrymandered in 2025 to favor Republicans. The court scheduled an in-person hearing for 10 a.m. Thursday.

The contempt fight erupted hours after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected Missouri officials’ emergency request to stay the state court ruling. Minutes later, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark of the Eastern District of Missouri issued a temporary restraining order barring Hoskins from using any congressional map other than the 2025 version....

The fight over legalizing slot machines in Missouri gas stations and convenience stores is moving from the Capitol into Republican state Senate primaries.

After years of Senate resistance, video lottery backers believe next year could bring a friendlier chamber. But three August primaries could determine how clear that path really is.

The contests involve three of the highest-profile backers of video lottery and candidates who say Missouri should not expand gambling again without voter approval....

Signatures on only two-thirds of the petition pages submitted to force a statewide vote on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map will go through the verification process, new filings in a Cole County court case show.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins delivered 33,068 pages to local election authorities out of 49,773 pages with signatures collected by a political action committee called People Not Politicians. The PAC began circulating petitions after lawmakers passed the new map on Sept. 12. Those pages will be checked to determine which signatures are from registered voters.

Hoskins held back the rest because he does not believe signatures collected before Oct. 14 — the day he approved the form of the petition — are valid. Any pages with at least one signature dated Oct. 14 or later were sent to local election authorities, an exhibit included in the court filings state....

Gov. Mike Kehoe’s decision to deploy Missouri National Guard soldiers to support immigration enforcement “makes no sense” because they will not get paid until the federal government shutdown is resolved, the state Senate’s Democratic leader said Thursday.

On Tuesday, Kehoe announced that soldiers from the Guard would, on a volunteer basis, be assigned to provide administrative, clerical and logistical support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facilities in the state.

The shutdown started a few hours after Kehoe announced the deployment....