Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymander cannot be used in the midterm elections unless the secretary of state deems the 305,000 signatures a group gathered to be insufficient.
By Paul Blumenthal | Dec 11, 2025, 02:17 PM EST
A Missouri group opposed to a new congressional map devised by state Republicans to eliminate a House seat held by Democrats turned in 305,000 signatures on Tuesday to put that map on the ballot in November 2026, potentially dealing a major setback to President Donald Trump’s push to use new district lines in red states to hold onto control of Congress after the midterms.
After submitting triple the required 107,000 signatures for a ballot initiative ahead of Thursday’s deadline, “the map is frozen,” according to Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, the group behind the initiative. That means Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymander cannot be used in the 2026 midterm elections unless the elected Republican secretary of state deems the signatures the group gathered insufficient. Instead, voters will decide whether the map should take effect in 2028.
Missouri followed Trump’s orders in September when it chopped up the Kansas City seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and divided the city into three GOP-leaning districts, joining Texas and North Carolina in drawing new lines meant to favor Republicans.
When state Republicans did this, they were following Texas’s lead, where Trump had pressured the state legislature to redraw five congressional districts to be more favorable to the GOP. North Carolina Republicans also redrew their map to eliminate one Democratic-held seat. But Democrats fired back. California passed an initiative to allow it to eliminate five GOP-held seats, negating the GOP’s intended gains in Texas. Meanwhile, a court in Utah forced the state to draw a new safe Democratic seat for the 2026 elections. With Missouri’s map likely suspended for 2026, it appears that the redistricting war has been fought to a draw ― for now.
People Not Politicians, which is supported by a coalition of civil rights groups, churches, labor unions, voter protection groups and others, launched its signature drive soon after Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, signed the new map into law on Sept. 24. Republicans, including Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and the state’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, responded by trying to shut down the signature gathering process in any way possible.
Hoskins repeatedly rejected People Not Politicians’ filing to collect signatures for a referendum and claims that 92,000 signatures collected by the group prior to Oct. 15 are now invalid. People Not Politicians challenged Hoskins’ decision in the Missouri state court. For her part, Hanaway made unfounded statements that the company hired to gather signatures for People Not Politicians was “reportedly employing illegal aliens” and that she had “referred this matter” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So far, that company has received no inquiries from ICE, according to von Glahn.
Efforts to shut down the signature campaign didn’t just come from GOP officials, but from the GOP-backed campaign opponents, according to one lawsuit. Advanced Micro Targeting, Inc., the signature-gathering company hired by People Not Politicians, alleged in a court filing that opponents of the petition drive poached its contractors by offering large sums of money to switch sides and threatened and harassed those who would not switch. That case is ongoing.
“If we need to continue to litigate to enforce our constitutional rights, we will,” von Glahn said.
The most likely outcome, based on previous ballot initiative campaigns in the state, is that the initiative will appear on the ballot and the state will be forced to use its 2021 map that retains the Kansas City district held by Democrats in the midterm elections. That is one less gerrymandered seat for Republicans to pad their razor-thin majority with.
Read the article here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/missouri-trump-redistricting_n_693b07a1e4b053d6e8f0e259