{"id":4897,"date":"2025-09-12T13:53:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/missouri-lawmakers-pass-gerrymandered-congressional-map-initiative-petition-limits\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T13:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T18:53:47","slug":"missouri-lawmakers-pass-gerrymandered-congressional-map-initiative-petition-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/missouri-lawmakers-pass-gerrymandered-congressional-map-initiative-petition-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri lawmakers pass gerrymandered congressional map, initiative petition limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

State Sen. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, speaks against splitting Kansas City into three congressional districts during Senate debate Friday. Shortly after she spoke, Senate Republicans forced a vote on a gerrymandered map of the state’s congressional districts (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n

A newly-gerrymandered congressional map and limits on voters\u2019 ability to amend the state constitution cleared the Missouri Senate Friday, capping two weeks of contentious debate that drew national attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

The changes to the initiative petition process will appear on the statewide ballot next year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The new map, designed to give Republicans control of seven of Missouri\u2019s eight seats in Congress, now heads to Gov. Mike Kehoe for his signature. It may ultimately end up on next year\u2019s ballot as well, with a group called People NOT Politicians Missouri announcing Friday that it filed a referendum with the secretary of state\u2019s office to \u201cput this deeply flawed map before Missouri voters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The legislature reconvened last week at the urging of President Donald Trump, who has demanded Republican-led states rework congressional districts so the party holds on to its slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year\u2019s midterm election.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The White House <\/span>started pressuring Missouri Republicans<\/span><\/a> to get in on the act in July, and this week <\/span>phoned in to the state Senate GOP caucus meeting<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The initiative petition changes were added to the agenda by Kehoe, with Republicans arguing the current system makes it too easy to change the Missouri Constitution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
State Sen. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, presents a motion to force a vote on a gerrymandered map of the state\u2019s congressional districts Friday on the Senate floor (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Missouri House passed both measures Tuesday. The Senate voted 21-11 to give them final approval Friday afternoon after moving to shut down a Democratic filibuster following four hours of debate. <\/span>Republican Sens. Lincoln Hough of Springfield and Mike Moon of Ash Grove joined nine Democrats in opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly after Friday\u2019s vote, Hough confirmed he is no longer chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a post he\u2019s held since 2023.<\/p>\n

Democrats see both proposals as a power grab by the Republican supermajority and a Trump-inspired assault on democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a cynical maneuver designed to put a thumb on the scale of democracy, to ensure predetermined outcome regardless of the will of the people,\u201d said state Sen. Barbara Washington, a Kansas City Democrat. \u201cIt is a betrayal of our duty to represent the people, and not a political party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Congressional map<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

Missouri has eight congressional districts, with six currently represented by Republicans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 5th District, based in Kansas City and represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005, would be carved up, with portions attached to the 4th and 6th Districts. Heavily Republican areas stretching along the Missouri River to Boone County, would be added to the remaining Kansas City portions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The intended result is a map where Republicans hold seven of the state\u2019s eight seats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Revising congressional district lines occurs every 10 years, after the allocation of seats following the federal census. The Missouri Constitution mandates it but is silent on whether lawmakers have the power to do so at other times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats argue it is unconstitutional to draw another map before the next census is complete. On Friday, a lawsuit was filed in Jackson County asking a judge to throw out the map on that basis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans are confident the map will survive any legal challenge and say critics are misreading the constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said Friday that the new map undermines decades of work to reunite a community divided at Troost Avenue, the line separating Black and white sections of Kansas City when housing segregation was legal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The GOP-backed map, Nurrenbern noted, splits Kansas City down Troost once again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody in D.C. sought to resurrect the Mason Dixon Line of Kansas City,\u201d she said. \u201cSomebody in D.C. decided to split the 4th and the 5th congressional districts down Troost.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Moon, one of only a handful of Republicans who have publicly opposed the new map, expressed concern Friday about legislators not being allowed to have any input in the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI ask myself what President Trump would do if he were in this body,\u201d Moon said, \u201cand someone told him, \u2018this is all you\u2019re going to get, and you vote yes, sit down and shut up.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Basemap \u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors \/ Map by Anna Sago<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those seeking to repeal the map through the referendum process, they must collect 100,000 signatures in 90 days to put the map on the November 2026 ballot. Of the 27 times a referendum has been placed on the Missouri ballot, voters have rejected actions by the General Assembly all but twice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis fight is not over,\u201d Elsa Rainey, a spokeswoman for People NOT Politicians Missouri, said in an emailed statement. \u201cMissouri voters \u2014 not politicians \u2014 will have the final say.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time the referendum process was successfully deployed was in 2018, when labor unions repealed a right-to-work law. The Missouri AFL-CIO has signaled it is likely to assist in a referendum over the maps.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, the secretary of state\u2019s office used procedural maneuvers to derail a referendum campaign that sought to overturn newly-passed restrictions on abortion. The move sparked a lawsuit, and in 2022 the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the laws the secretary of state used to <\/span>obstruct the citizen-initiated referendum process were unconstitutional<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins agreed that the 2022 court ruling means signatures can be counted as valid even if they are collected prior to the certification of a ballot title, \u201csince otherwise the full process could eat up over half of their available gathering time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But while People NOT Politicians Missouri filed a for a referendum Friday afternoon, the secretary of state\u2019s office refused to certify it until the governor signs the bill into law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBased on review of recent referendum submittals, our inclination is that the petitioners would need to at least wait for the governor\u2019s signature,\u201d Rachael Dunn, communications director for the secretary of state, said in an email. \u201cUntil he signs it, there is the notional possibility (however unrealistic) that he could veto it and so it would not formally be considered law pre-signature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehoe has 45 days to sign the bill. He said on social media Friday that he would will review the map \u2014 which his office submitted to the legislature and was approved without any changes \u2014 and sign it into law soon.<\/a><\/p>\n

Chuck Hatfield, a veteran Democratic attorney from Jefferson City, said the constitution reserves the right for citizens to reject by referendum \u201cany act of the General Assembly.\u201d The governor is not involved in the process at all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe referendum is on the act of the General Assembly, not on a law signed by the governor,\u201d Hatfield said. \u201cIt is appropriate to start a referendum process as soon as the General Assembly acts. If the governor later vetoes the measure, the referendum will, of course, not be necessary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The secretary of state, Hatfield said, has no right to make decisions on when a referendum may be started.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Initiative Petition<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

Missouri is one of 24 states that allows citizen initiative petitions. They can be used to either amend the constitution or change state law, though the path to successfully doing so is often arduous and expensive, requiring tens of thousands of signatures to even land on the ballot.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Missourians have used the initiative petition process to legalize abortion and recreational marijuana use, as well expand Medicaid eligibility.<\/p>\n

Republicans have fumed at the success of progressive ballot initiatives for years, arguing they are bankrolled by out-of-state special interests.<\/p>\n

When the bill cleared the Missouri House, Republican state Rep. Ed Lewis said amending the state constitution has become too easy. Any changes, he said, should have \u201cbroad consensus across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
State Sen. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, speaks on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon, accusing Senate leadership of \u201ccheating.\u201d (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The legislation approved Friday 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.<\/p>\n

Based on last year\u2019s election results, that change would mean as few as 5% of voters could defeat any ballot measure. The new requirements would only apply to citizen-led initiative petitions, not amendments placed on the ballot by the legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a politician in Jefferson City, you become more powerful after this passes,\u201d said state Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat.<\/p>\n

The question will go on the 2026 ballot and require a simple majority to approve.<\/p>\n

Sam Licklider, a lobbyist for the Missouri Association of Realtors, told lawmakers this week that his organization will oppose the proposal on the ballot.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the realtors raised $4.4 million to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit sales taxes on real estate transfers. That was followed in 2016 by a $5.6 million campaign to prevent lawmakers from extending the sales tax to services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are well positioned,\u201d Licklider said, \u201cto ensure our arguments reach the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was updated at 4:55 p.m. to include new information about the campaign for a referendum and a lawsuit filed in Jackson County.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Sen. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, speaks against splitting Kansas City into three congressional districts during Senate debate Friday. Shortly after she spoke, Senate Republicans forced a vote on a gerrymandered map of the state’s congressional districts (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent). A newly-gerrymandered congressional map and limits on voters\u2019 ability to amend the state constitution cleared…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMissouri lawmakers pass gerrymandered congressional map, initiative petition limits - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/missouri-lawmakers-pass-gerrymandered-congressional-map-initiative-petition-limits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missouri lawmakers pass gerrymandered congressional map, initiative petition limits - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"State Sen. 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Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, speaks against splitting Kansas City into three congressional districts during Senate debate Friday. Shortly after she spoke, Senate Republicans forced a vote on a gerrymandered map of the state’s congressional districts (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent). 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