Missouri court blocks Republican-backed House map

The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Missouri from using a Republican-backed congressional map in the November midterm elections, ordering that voters must first decide whether to approve the new districts.

The unanimous ruling means the state’s general election will be conducted under the congressional map adopted after the 2020 census, even though the new districts were used in the August primaries. The court said the redrawn map, passed by the Republican-led Legislature, cannot be used in November or at any point afterward unless voters uphold it in a statewide referendum.

“The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” the court said. The legislation containing the new districts “did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters.” As a result, the prior congressional map “remains in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election.”

The decision is a setback for Republicans, who sought to use mid-decade redistricting to strengthen their narrow majority in the U.S. House. Missouri is one of several Republican-led states that pursued new maps after President Donald Trump urged the party to redraw districts to its advantage.

The new Missouri map was designed to reconfigure the 5th Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, and make it more favorable to Republicans. Under the struck-down version, Trump would have carried the district by more than 17 percentage points in 2024, according to NBC News. Cleaver won his old seat by almost 24 points in 2024 and has carried the Kansas City-based district with at least 60% of the vote in each of the past two elections.

Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin won the August primary in the reshaped 5th District, which had been extended eastward to include rural Republican areas. About 59% of voters in the revised district were new under that map, according to an Associated Press estimate cited by CBS News and The Guardian.

Cleaver, who was unopposed in the August primary, had not posted campaign signs in many of the newly added rural areas while awaiting the court’s decision. “We’re going to run, and we’re going to run hard, no matter where we are,” Cleaver said last month at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, which had been added to the revised district.

Brattin had questioned Cleaver’s ability to represent the broader district. “I think his whole campaign strategy was hoping that the courts would do his bidding for him. I don’t think that he represents Missouri values,” Brattin said at the State Fair.

The legal fight began after Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called lawmakers into a special session last year to redraw the map. The advocacy group People Not Politicians Missouri gathered more than 300,000 signatures seeking a veto referendum. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins refused to certify the petition, arguing that the referendum process could not be used for congressional redistricting. A lower court agreed, but the state Supreme Court overturned that decision.

Judge Ginger K. Gooch wrote that Hoskins and those acting with him are barred from implementing or using the map “unless and until” voters approve it and it takes effect 30 days later.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said she would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Never before in American history has a court overturned a congressional map after a primary and before a general election,” Hanaway said. “This unprecedented decision clearly violates federal law and has thrust our state into a full-fledged constitutional crisis.”

People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn welcomed the ruling. “This victory reaches beyond Missouri,” he said. “In a year when map-drawing has become a national weapon, courts across the country are watching what happens here. A Missouri win for the referendum is a signal that the people still hold the power.”