GOP Win in Missouri Court Ruling Adds Fuel to Growing Redistricting Wars

Missouri continues to be a key battleground in the redistricting wars after the state Supreme Court handed Republicans a victory, allowing a congressional map approved by the state Legislature last year to go into effect.

The state’s high court rejected Missouri Democrats’ attempt to overturn maps adopted by the Missouri Legislature. The legal challenge centered on whether a petition for a referendum should automatically suspend the implementation of the maps.

The state high court win, however, doesn’t halt a potential referendum on the map. Rather, the court rejected the Democrats’ attempt to prevent the map from going into full effect while a referendum is pending.

It’s the latest in a string of redistricting court losses for Democrats. The Missouri state court decision was sandwiched between rulings by the Virginia Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down a congressional map favorable to Democrats. Eight states, including California and Texas, have conducted mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“The RNC successfully invested in defending Missouri’s lawful congressional maps and won,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters told the Daily Signal in a statement. “This ruling is another major victory for Republicans, the rule of law, and Missouri voters.”

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The new map that redraws part of the Kansas City area could net Republicans an extra U.S. House seat in November.

Republican lawmakers had a proposed 7-1 map as early as 2022, but moderate leadership in the Legislature killed it, said former Missouri Republican House Speaker Tim Jones.

The question now is whether voters can repeal a congressional map, said Jones, an attorney.

“It was a unanimous decision at the Supreme Court to uphold the map, but what the Supreme Court didn’t rule on is whether you can referendum a map,” Jones told the Daily Signal.

“We have frequent ballot referendums in the state backed with massive amounts of money from outside the state,” Jones continued. “What the Legislature, the secretary of state, and the attorney general argue is that you can’t referendum a map any more than you can referendum a budget; otherwise, it would never get done. There are certain things in the purview of the legislative process. It’s an open legal question, but I think it’s pretty dangerous to say you can repeal a legislative map with a referendum.”

Democrats and supporters of the referendum accuse the secretary of state of delaying certification of the referendum, which they say surpassed the required threshold for signatures.

“The Secretary of State’s own data confirms what more than 305,000 Missourians already made clear: this referendum is sufficient, and the people have a right to vote,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, in a public statement after the court ruling.

“A sufficient petition suspends the law the day it is turned in,” he added. “Unnecessary delays by politicians do not change this fact. If he continues to delay, then he is moving forward under a map that has been suspended by the people.”

In a post on X last week after the state court decision, the Missouri Democratic Party contended there was “misinformation” about what the court decided.

“The Supreme Court unanimously said ‘it is impossible to say’ which map is in effect until the number of sufficient signatures is known,” Missouri Democrats noted. “By Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ own data, we have enough signatures from Missourians to force a vote.”

The Missouri Democratic Party did not respond to inquiries for this story on Tuesday.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins issued formal guidance to local election authorities statewide following the court’s ruling, instructing them to continue election preparation activities—including candidate filing, ballot programming, and precinct assignments—based on the congressional districts established under House Bill 1, known as “Missouri First Map.”

“As Missouri’s chief elections official, my priority is protecting the integrity of the elections process,” Hoskins said in a public statement. “The Supreme Court’s decision provides important guidance, and we are directing all local election authorities to follow the letter of the law and proceed under the provisions of House Bill 1.”