Missouri Senate gives final approval for gerrymandered congressional map

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (CN) — The Missouri Senate on Friday gave final approval to a new gerrymandered congressional map and a bill making it virtually impossible to change the state constitution through a signature initiative process, boosting President Donald Trump’s push to make sure the U.S. House of Representatives remains in Republican control.

The bill passed by a 21-11 vote with only two Republicans dissenting. Trump praised the passing on his Truth Social account.

“Thank you very much to the Great State of Missouri for the Redistricting which will, hopefully, give us an additional Seat in Congress!” Trump posted. “A new, much fairer, and much improved, Congressional Map, has now overwhelmingly passed both Chambers of the Missouri Legislature.”

Governor Mike Kehoe, a Republican who was elected on Trump’s MAGA platform last November, called the special session that began on Sept. 3 to pass the two bills, heeding the president’s call on Republican states to give the party extra seats to help it keep control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm elections.

“The Missouri FIRST Map has officially passed the Missouri Senate and is now headed to my desk, where we will review the legislation and sign it into law soon,” Kehoe tweeted. “The legislature also passed critically needed IP reform, giving Missouri voters the chance to protect our Constitution at the ballot box.”

But Kehoe’s signature may not be the end of the battle.

Opponents of the new congressional map, under the state constitution, can ask for a statewide vote on the proposal if they can gather an estimated 106,000 signatures from registered voters in six out of the state’s eight congressional districts. Once Kehoe signs the bill, they have 90 days to collect the signatures and the map would not go into effect until a public vote in 2026, where a simple majority would be needed to pass or reject it.

Several state groups are considering signature petitions including the Missouri chapter of People Not Politicians, which advocates for citizen access to the ballot. Elsa Rainey, a spokesperson with People Not Politicians, indicated in a statement that the group is ready to mobilize.

“If lawmakers won’t listen, the people have other tools — including legal action and a referendum,” Rainey said in the statement. “Missourians are ready to defend democracy.”

A similar effort was used in 2018 by state labor unions to overturn a right-to-work law supported by then-Governor Eric Greitens. The law, which would have barred private sector workers from being compelled to join a union, was soundly defeated by 67% of the vote in an August special election.

Missouri has eight U.S. House seats, with Democrats currently holding two. The new congressional map gives the Republicans an extra seat in the U.S. House by targeting Democratic U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City district.

The new map carves up the 5th District, dispersing its voters into three districts that give Republicans an electoral advantage of 7-1.

Republicans claim the new map better reflects Missouri’s conservative values. Democrats claim it is a power grab as part of Trump’s assault on democracy.

Missouri’s congressional maps are revised every 10 years following the federal census, but the state’s constitution is silent on whether lawmakers have the power to do so at other times.

The measure redrawing the map, known as House Bill 1, is already facing mounting legal challenges, including a lawsuit filed in Cole County Circuit Court on Friday morning by four Missouri residents who claim a second revision of the map under the same census is not permitted by the state constitution.

Last week, the NAACP sued Kehoe and other state officials claiming the special legislative session to redraw the state’s congressional maps is unconstitutional because it does not rise to the level of an extraordinary occasion under the Missouri Constitution. Cleaver has vowed to file a separate legal challenge of the map as well.

While the congressional map is drawing most of the headlines, Republicans are also taking aim at the citizen initiative petition process. The bill approved by the House on Tuesday 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 would mean as few as 5% of voters could defeat any measure, according to the Missouri Independent.

Republicans claim it is too easy to amend the state constitution and the process has been dominated by out-of-state interests.

Recently, citizen initiative petitions have mobilized efforts that ultimately legalized abortion and recreational marijuana as well as expanded Medicaid eligibility.

The Missouri House on Tuesday passed the new congressional map bill by a 90-65 vote and the citizen initiative petition process bill by a 98-58 vote.

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