Missouri Supreme Court blocks gerrymandered map in major loss for Republicans

The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the state’s gerrymandered congressional map from being used in the November election, a seismic ruling that halts a Republican attempt to force Kansas City’s longtime congressman out of office.

Read more How will ‘Super’ El Niño impact fall hurricane formation near Hilton Head?

The unanimous decision found that Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was wrong to reject a campaign seeking to strike down the map, called HB 1. The ruling also makes it explicitly clear that the new map cannot be used in November.

“The secretary and all of those acting in concert with him are restrained and enjoined from implementing, using, or mandating the use of the congressional redistricting in HB 1 for the November 2026 general election,” Judge Ginger K. Gooch wrote in the opinion released Thursday.

The court ruled that the campaign seeking to strike down the map must appear on the Nov. 3 ballot. The map can only be used if voters approve it, the opinion said.

The ruling hands a key loss to President Donald Trump amid a bitter fight for control of Congress this year. Missouri Republican lawmakers redrew the map last year under pressure from the Trump administration.

But hundreds of thousands of Missourians fought back. A campaign called People Not Politicians used a referendum, a mechanism for direct democracy that allows citizens to challenge laws, and collected more than 305,000 signatures to force a statewide vote on the map.

Thursday’s ruling marked the culmination of that fight, making Missouri the first state in the country to use a referendum to block a Trump-backed map. The campaign survived a series of attacks from state officials and months of court battles to reach the Nov. 3 ballot.

“BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!,” Chuck Hatfield, an attorney for the referendum campaign, wrote on social media after the ruling came down.

Now, the decision is poised to scramble the upcoming November election. Missouri already held primary elections using the new map. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican whose office defended the map in court, vowed to file an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the decision.

“Never before in American history has a court overturned a congressional map after a primary and before a general election,” Hanaway said in a statement. “This unprecedented decision clearly violates federal law and has thrust our state into a full‑fledged constitutional crisis.”

Read more Baby copperhead season is back in SC and they’re born venomous. Here’s how to keep them away

The map split Kansas City’s voters into three Republican-leaning districts. The goal was to oust Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and allow Republicans to pick up seven of Missouri’s eight congressional districts.

Under the map, Cleaver’s 5th Congressional District stretched east from Kansas City to the rural cities and towns spread across mid-Missouri. The map used Troost Avenue, the city’s historic symbol of racial segregation, as a dividing line between the 4th and 5th Districts.

The map, barring any major changes, will revert back to the boundaries lawmakers approved in 2022, bolstering Cleaver’s chances of reelection. Cleaver, Kansas City’s first Black mayor, has represented the city’s urban core in Congress since 2005.

Inside the ruling

The ruling came a day after the court heard dueling arguments over whether the referendum campaign can reach the ballot.

The case centered on Hoskins’ extraordinary decision to reject the campaign last month and declare it unconstitutional. People Not Politicians sued to reverse that move and place it on the ballot.

The case pitted Hatfield against the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and two high-profile Republican attorneys. Marc Ellinger, a prominent Missouri GOP attorney, and John Gore, a former Department of Justice official, intervened in the case on behalf of three Republican organizations, illustrating the national implications of Missouri’s map.

In the weeks leading up to Thursday’s decision, Hoskins had repeatedly taken to social media to boast about the case. But the court on Thursday took Hoskins to task for his decision to block the campaign.

“ The secretary devotes a significant portion of his briefing to discussing the confusion, expense, and practical difficulties that may result from not utilizing the congressional redistricting in HB 1 for the November 2026 election,” Gooch wrote in a footnote.

“Besides being irrelevant to the secretary’s sole basis for declaring the referendum petition insufficient,” Gooch wrote, “these arguments are particularly misplaced given the secretary’s delay created the confusion, expense, and practical difficulties of which he complains.”

Read more SC woman arrested after making false insurance claims, SLED says