The Missouri Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a new congressional map favored by Republicans cannot be used in the November election, requiring voters to decide whether to approve the redrawn districts. The decision reverses rulings by Republican officials who sought to implement the map, which was designed to shift one of the state’s two Democratic-leaning districts toward the GOP and potentially unseat Representative Emanuel Cleaver. More than 300,000 signatures were gathered by the group People Not Politicians to force a veto referendum on the map, after it was approved by the legislature at the behest of former President Donald Trump.
The court’s ruling means Missouri will use its previous congressional map, drawn after the 2020 census, for the 2026 election. The new map was already used in the August primary. Cleaver, whose Kansas City-based district was targeted by the redesign, will now seek re-election in his previous, heavily Democratic seat. Trump criticized the decision as “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional” and called for the state to use the recently used map.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has vowed to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing it constitutes a “full-fledged constitutional crisis” by overturning a map after a primary election. While the court is composed of five Republican-appointed judges, the unanimous ruling underscores the legal arguments surrounding the referendum petition. The decision places Missouri in a complicated situation with ballots soon to be printed and questions about the consistency of congressional districts between the primary and general elections.
The core of the dispute centers on whether the Missouri Constitution allows a referendum petition to be used for a congressional redistricting law passed by the Legislature. The court determined that the constitutional provision allowing a referendum on “any act” of the legislature encompasses congressional redistricting. The situation creates an unusual circumstance for candidates, who competed in the primaries under the now-blocked map and will now compete in November under the previous boundaries.
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