Missouri high court blocks Republican map, orders voter referendum

JEFFERSON CITY (MNTV) — The Missouri Supreme Court has unanimously blocked the state’s newly drawn congressional districts from the November election and ordered a statewide referendum on them, a rare judicial setback to Republicans’ national effort to redraw maps before the 2026 midterms.

The court ruled that citizens had gathered enough valid signatures to force a referendum, calling the petition “legal, sufficient, and timely” and finding the secretary of state wrongly rejected it. 

Because the petition was valid, the law creating the new boundaries never took effect, so the districts drawn after the 2020 census remain in force for November. 

The map had been used in Missouri’s August primary but cannot be used in the general election, or in future elections, unless voters approve it. 

President Donald Trump said the court had “ridiculously ruled” against the map, which could still be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The redistricting followed Trump’s call for Republican-controlled states to redraw maps to boost the party; Missouri’s governor convened a special session that reshaped the Fifth District held by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver, extending it into rural Republican areas — an Associated Press analysis found about 59 percent of the redrawn district’s voters were new to it. 

Opponents submitted more than 300,000 signatures in December, but the Republican secretary of state did not reject the petition until August. 

The ruling is among the few major decisions to reject a Republican map in a nationwide redistricting battle that has spread to more than a dozen states, with strategists estimating favorable maps could yield up to 10 additional House seats.