When Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called a special session late last month, he deployed legislators into a partisan battle over two of the most polarizing issues in state politics.
Weeks later, Republican lawmakers approved both: A gerrymandered congressional map that carves up Kansas City and a statewide ballot question that would overhaul the initiative petition process, Missouri’s most visible form of direct democracy.
In the wake of the volatile session, however, one major question looms. Will the measures survive the courtroom and the ballot box?
The gerrymandered map faces an onslaught of attacks. Three separate lawsuits seek to block it from taking effect, while opponents are hoping to mount a referendum campaign that would ask voters to strike down the map through a statewide vote.
At the same time, Missourians are also gearing up for a statewide vote on weakening the initiative petition process. Voters will decide in November 2026 whether it should be virtually impossible for most citizen-led constitutional amendments to pass on the ballot.
The two GOP-led issues set up what could be an explosive campaign season in which Missouri voters are poised to decide the future of representative and direct democracy in the state for years to come.
“For the Republicans, they accomplished what they wanted in the short run,” said Peverill Squire, a political scientist at the University of Missouri. “In the long run, it will probably have some cost for them.”
On the heels of Republican lawmakers approving both measures, opponents are now gearing up for a fight of their own.
“Now is an important time for Missouri voters to get educated and aware of these dual efforts to strip us of our voices,” said Denise Lieberman, director of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, which opposes both measures. “We’ll have to defend fair maps and our initiative petition process at the ballot box.”
Striking down Missouri’s map
Republican lawmakers earlier this month approved a new congressional map that slices through Kansas City, thrusting Missouri into a national redistricting frenzy spearheaded by the Trump administration.
The map, which is awaiting Kehoe’s signature, dilutes Kansas City-area voters into three Republican-leaning districts. The goal is to push out Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and allow a Republican to win his 5th Congressional District.
President Donald Trump has pressured Republican-led states to gerrymander their U.S. House maps ahead of the 2026 election. The Trump administration wants to ensure Republicans maintain their slim majority in Congress.
Several lawsuits seek to block the map from taking effect, raising a series of arguments against it. The Missouri chapter of the NAACP, for example, argues Kehoe illegally called lawmakers into a special session while two other lawsuits allege the Missouri Constitution bars legislators from redistricting more than once a decade.
A new campaign is also charging forward with a plan asking voters to strike down the map through a statewide referendum vote. The campaign, called People Not Politicians, has started collecting signatures around the state to force a vote in November 2026.
Referendum campaigns are outlined in the Missouri Constitution, which allows voters to challenge most bills passed by state lawmakers. Campaigners have until Dec. 11 to collect enough in-person signatures to force a vote on the map.
To trigger a referendum, campaigners have 90 days to collect enough signatures in at least six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. The signature threshold would have to be equal to 5% of voters in each district based on the most recent gubernatorial election or roughly 106,384 statewide.
If campaigners turn in enough signatures by that deadline, the map would not take effect until the statewide vote.
Elsa Rainey, the campaign spokesperson, said more than 2,200 people have signed up to collect signatures across the state. The campaign also trained 150 volunteers at a signature-training event in Kansas City over the weekend, she said.
“We’re very confident that we’ll get enough signatures for this to be on the ballot,” Rainey said.
Rainey encouraged people who want to get involved to visit the campaign’s website, where individuals can sign up to receive more information.
A spokesperson for Kehoe did not immediately respond to questions about the referendum push.
But one Republican lawmaker who voted in favor of the map said he had “no problem” with the referendum campaign..
“I think we made a good decision with what we did,” said Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican. “If some of the referendums come to pass, we’ll take those as they come. But I think the map overall represents the values that we do have in Missouri. And that’s all I can say on that issue.”
Direct democracy overhaul
Kehoe’s special session call also included a plan to weaken the state’s initiative petition process, a stunning endorsement of a proposal that would overhaul Missouri’s key mechanism for direct democracy.
Republican lawmakers quickly approved the measure, placing it on the November 2026 ballot (or an earlier election called by Kehoe), where it will likely be called Amendment 4. Critics view the proposal as the most expansive attempt to weaken the initiative petition process in recent history.
Initiative petitions have allowed voters to overturn an abortion ban, raise the minimum wage, legalize marijuana, expand Medicaid and legalize sports betting in recent years. Currently, initiatives need a simple majority (50% plus one) in order to pass.
The legislation would require citizen-led constitutional amendments to receive both majority support statewide and a majority in each of the state’s eight congressional districts to pass.
Political experts previously told The Star the increased threshold would make it virtually impossible for most measures to pass. It would give voters in just one congressional district the power to veto an amendment, no matter how popular the measure is statewide.
Ahead of the historic election, campaigns are forming on both sides of the debate.
One group opposing the amendment will be called Will of the People. Lieberman, who is helping lead the effort, said voter education will be key in defeating the measure.
“This proposal is the most extreme attack on the initiative petition process yet, and in essence, it will end citizen initiatives in Missouri,” Lieberman said.
On the other side, a group called Protect MO Voters has formed to support the ballot measure. The campaign is led by Andy Bakker, executive director of Liberty Alliance USA, a right-wing advocacy group.
Bakker, in an email to The Star, sidestepped arguments about the increased voter threshold. He instead pointed to other changes the amendment would make to the initiative petition process, such as a ban on foreign adversary contributions to ballot measures.
“Our campaign is excited to work with a broad coalition of Missourians to get the word directly to voters,” Bakker said.
Critics, however, have framed those additional changes as ballot candy, or provisions added to entice voters to approve something they otherwise would not. Missouri, for example, already banned foreign spending on ballot measures through state law.
At the same time, another group called Respect MO Voters is also gearing up for a campaign that would ban lawmakers from weakening the initiative petition process. The group launched a signature-gathering drive across the state, including in Kansas City, earlier this month.
As Missouri grapples with the fallout from the chaotic special session, the gerrymandered congressional map and the initiative petition overhaul are poised to face fierce resistance over the next several weeks.
The impending courtroom fights and potential statewide votes will determine whether the two priorities approved by Republican lawmakers will shape the state’s future or fall apart.
“They run a risk that in taking sort of highly partisan stances for partisan reasons that, in the end, it may all be for naught,” said Squire, the political scientist. “It could be either the court cases, or the voters, overturn the congressional maps and the change in the initiative process is going to be an uphill battle for them when it gets to the voters.”