What to know about latest Missouri redistricting ruling
The Hill · C · trust 48/100
Comments: by Caroline Vakil - 09/04/26 4:50 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Caroline Vakil - 09/04/26 4:50 PM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING The Missouri Supreme Court delivered a last-minute twist in the midterm redistricting saga this week when the predominantly Republican governor-appointed court ruled that new maps passed by state lawmakers to give their party an extra seat couldn’t immediately go into effect.
Instead, the high court said, the coalition looking to temporarily stall the new GOP-favored 7-1 House map from being used in this year’s elections met the requirements to have the new congressional lines put to a referendum in November. That would mean the state would then be using its Republican-leaning 6-2 map in November.
The new ruling injects uncertainty into Missouri’s elections given that the state held its primaries using the new GOP-favored 7-1 House map in last month’s primaries. The Missouri attorney general’s office has already said it intends to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Show Me State has been swept up in a broader redistricting war as Republicans looked to redraw congressional lines across the country to net pickup opportunities ahead of November, with Democrats responding in kind.
Missouri Republicans faced pressure from President Trump and national Republicans to redraw their House map from its current delegation makeup of six Republicans and two Democrats to a new map that could create a 7-1 edge for the GOP. The new map seeks to weaken Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s (D-Mo.) Kansas City-based seat.
GOP lawmakers passed the new map last fall, prompting opponents to find a way to stall the new lines.
A coalition called People Not Politicians is pushing for a referendum on the November ballot that asks voters whether to approve the new 7-1 House map. But Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) made a late decision that the measure couldn’t be placed on the ballot, arguing the state Constitution doesn’t permit state Legislature-led congressional redistricting to go before voters, among other reasons.
The Missouri high court rejected the GOP secretary’s arguments in a notably unanimous 7-0 decision — five of the justices were appointed by a Republican governor — by writing, “Because the referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, [the new House map] never took effect and was referred to the voters as of December 9, 2025.”
“The congressional districts the General Assembly established in 2022 remain in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election, and HB 1 [the new House map] will not take effect unless and until approved by the voters at the November 2026 general election,” the court added.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) immediately said the state would escalate the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the Missouri Supreme Court declined Hoskins’s request to halt the high court’s new ruling on the map as the state makes its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling creates some headaches for congressional primary winners given that Missouri already held its contests last month and relied on the Republican redistricted maps.
People Not Politicians attorney Chuck Hatfield suggested the winners of last month’s primaries would head to the general election in November, or that political parties can decide on their own nominees, according to St. Louis Public Radio .
The Hill has reached out to Hoskins’s office for guidance on how the ruling impacts the state’s primaries.
The last few states — New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware — are wrapping up their primaries this month, with Election Day roughly 60 days out. Undergoing a new primary — let alone voter education — could be intensive, costly and challenging.
Missouri Republicans hadn’t officially issued their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court at the time of publication, though observers expect that Republicans will argue that lawmakers have the authority to redistrict under the U.S. Constitution.
Several legal experts who spoke to the Missouri Independent say it’s unlikely Republicans will be able to successfully appeal to the country’s highest court.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Virginia Democrats’ appeal in May to have their more Democratic-friendly 9-2 map used in time for the general election after the state’s highest court struck the effort down. Instead, Virginia held its primaries under the current 6-5 Democratic edge House map.
The back-of-the-napkin redistricting math is expected to change little after the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling, given that Republicans only changed their congressional lines to pick up one seat in the lower chamber.
For Democrats, the redistricting ruling is a win because it means Cleaver will likely return to Congress — his seat went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 by 23 points .
While Republicans have been able to successfully redraw more House seats in their favor in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee compared to Democrats’ expected gains in California and Utah, election forecasts expect Democrats to flip the lower chamber in November.
Decision Desk HQ forecasts that Democrats have a 67 percent chance of taking back the House, compared with a 33 percent chance of Republicans holding it.
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