Missouri Secretary of State Rejects Petition for a Vote on New House Map

Missouri’s election chief rejected a petition to hold a referendum on a new congressional map enacted by the state legislature and supported by President Donald Trump.

Hundreds of thousands of Missourians signed the petition to force a November election on a new House map approved by the Republican-majority legislature.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said at a press conference on Aug. 4 that the statewide effort was void because redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums.

Hoskins said the number of signatures doesn’t matter because “challenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law.”

The group behind the push, People Not Politicians, criticized the map as a product of “gerrymandering” and “nothing more than an unconstitutional power grab.”

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said that “Hoskins is making a last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice in Missouri,” and that the referendum has more than enough support to qualify it for the November ballot.

Missouri is following Texas’s lead in a series of Trump-backed efforts to reevaluate state congressional district maps, which has evolved into a redistricting battle between Republican- and Democratic-led states.

Both states stand to change their state delegation’s party makeup enough to support a larger majority for Republicans in the lower chamber of Congress.

Missouri’s new map could reshape the Kansas City area’s 5th Congressional District, which has long been held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). Cleaver represents one of just two Democratic-held congressional districts, out of eight in the state.

The new congressional map would redraw the 5th District, looping in rural central Missouri, adding a larger Republican base.

Hoskins also rejected a measure to limit legislative restrictions on citizen ballot initiatives and require an 80 percent vote in both chambers to alter voter-approved measures.

Hoskins said the multi-issue nature of the referendum violated a constitutional prohibition on combining changes to multiple sections of the constitution into a single amendment vote.

Respect Missouri Voters said it will pursue legal action to get the amendment on the ballot in November.

“This brazen disregard for the will of the people is exactly why the people of Missouri came together to gather signatures, donate, and place the Respect Missouri Voters Amendment on the ballot for November, because we are sick of these games in Jefferson City,” said former state Sen. Bob Johnson (R-Lee’s Summit).

Louisiana and Tennessee have also undertaken a mid-decade redistricting effort.

Louisiana’s Republican-controlled legislature redrew the congressional map after the Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. It was signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican.

The new map eliminated one of the two more competitive congressional districts. It is expected to favor Republicans by a margin of 5–1 instead of the current 4–2 split.

In Tennessee, the Chancery Court dismissed an emergency lawsuit that attempted to block the state’s new congressional map. The new apportionment carved up Tennessee’s only Democratic stronghold, Memphis, into three Republican-leaning districts.

This means that all nine of the congressional districts now lean Republican.

In May of this year, South Carolina’s Senate rejected a new congressional map that could have eliminated the only Democratic seat in the state ahead of the midterms. The Republican-led chamber rejected a motion to proceed to the bill 20–24 after it cleared the state House 74–37 days before.

Some Democratic-led states, such as California, also pursued mid-decade redistricting. In November of 2025, voters approved Proposition 50. That measure temporarily replaced the state’s independent commission-drawn congressional map with one structured to give Democrats a chance to gain five House seats.

That effort was challenged, and the Supreme Court declined to block the new map from being used in the 2026 election, as the challenges continue.

In Maryland, Democrats called a special session to advance a constitutional amendment that could permit a map favoring Democrats in all eight congressional districts.

Both chambers of the state legislature approved the amendment in an Aug. 4 vote, sending it to Maryland voters in the November election. It passed the House 96–38 and the Senate 32–13.

Jacki Thrapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.