Missouri fights its voters over new Trump-backed gerrymander

Republicans’ efforts to rig the 2026 midterm elections by gerrymandering House maps hit a potential snag in Missouri on Tuesday, when organizers submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures calling for a referendum on the state’s new, GOP-skewed map. 

The new map, passed in September, seeks to flip control of a Democratic-held House district in the Kansas City area, likely handing Republicans seven of the state’s eight seats. Given how plainly undemocratic that is, organizers sought to put the map before the voters, and on Tuesday, they delivered over 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office, almost three times the required number to trigger a statewide vote.

But they face an uphill battle thanks to GOP officials who will do anything to block voters from getting their say in the matter.

According to the Missouri Constitution, new districts drawn by the state legislature cannot take effect while a referendum is pending. In theory, the future of the state’s new extra-gerrymandered map would be decided at the ballot box, which is as direct as democracy gets. But the Missouri GOP isn’t interested in democracy. It’s interested in pleasing President Donald Trump, so Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is preparing to break precedent and allow the map to go into effect on Thursday, petition signatures be damned.

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On top of that, Hoskins gets to decide how many of those 300,000 signatures are real and legal. If he can throw out enough of them to get below that 110,000 threshold, it kills the referendum. He’s already said he won’t accept roughly 90,000 signatures, which were collected shortly before he certified paperwork related to the referendum. 

Hoskins has also tried to screw with the ballot language, trying to trick people to vote in favor of the Trump-backed map: “Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled ‘House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),’ which repeals Missouri’s existing gerrymandered congressional plan that protects incumbent politicians, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more cities and counties intact, are more compact, and better reflects statewide voting patterns?”

Come on, man. The new map is even more divorced from “statewide voting patterns.” In the past three presidential elections, Missouri has given about 40% of its vote to the Democratic candidate, but under this new map, Democrats would likely win only 13% of the state’s House districts (one out of eight). The new map functions to buy the GOP one more safe House seat, not to “keep more cities and counties intact.” 

Hoskins and the Missouri General Assembly also tried to sue People Not Politicians, the group helming the referendum effort. They trotted out the argument that the U.S. Constitution prohibits referendums for congressional districts. That case got tossed on Monday by Judge Zachary Bluestone, a recent Trump appointee, but only because he found that the case was not ripe for adjudication, meaning that there is not yet something for the court to decide. But he dismissed it without prejudice, meaning that Hoskins and the Assembly could refile it. 

Bluestone also helpfully reminded Hoskins that he doesn’t need a court case since he has the authority to declare the referendum question unconstitutional all by himself and get rid of it that way.

But wait, there’s more!

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GOP operatives appear to have tried to pay people to quit gathering signatures, according to a lawsuit filed by Advanced Micro Targeting, a company working with People Not Politicians to gather signatures. People were allegedly offered up to $30,000 to stop gathering signatures.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway also lent a hand here, going on X to claim without evidence that Advanced Micro Targeting was “reportedly employing illegal aliens” and referred it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She also essentially accused the firm of human trafficking, because why not?

Hanaway is issuing a civil investigative demand to Advanced Micro Targeting based on her imaginary belief that the firm is riddled with undocumented workers. In effect, she’s demanding it give her worker names, payroll info, hiring documents, training materials, and immigration paperwork, including “the fronts and backs” of any identity documents. Does she provide any support for her allegations? No. No, she does not. 

All of these people are right to be running scared. Missouri voters love referendums. Of the 27 referendums that have appeared on the ballot, voters backed 25. One of those, back in 1922, overturned a congressional map. 

The GOP will do its damnedest to prevent Missouri voters from voting. But the campaigns will keep pushing, the people of Missouri will keep pushing, and while GOP elected officials might eventually kill this particular referendum, they can’t contain the fury people have over this.

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