GOP derails bid to stop Missouri gerrymander for 2026

Key Points:

• A Missouri circuit court ruled that Republican leaders can use a new gerrymandered congressional map in the 2026 midterms before voters have a chance to approve or reject it via referendum, undermining the state constitutional right to direct democracy.
• The ruling allows Republicans to sidestep the referendum process despite more than 300,000 signatures gathered to challenge the map, with the election filing deadline of March 31 making it unlikely the referendum will stop the map’s use in the upcoming election.
• Missouri Republicans have employed multiple procedural tactics—including delaying signature verification, changing judicial venues, and proposing misleading ballot language—to block or slow the referendum effort, though voters successfully submitted nearly three times the required signatures.
• Legal challenges to the map and the special legislative session that approved it have largely failed in lower courts and the Missouri Supreme Court, which upheld the mid-decade redistricting despite constitutional concerns.
• Critics warn that the GOP’s strategy effectively nullifies voters’ constitutional rights to approve or reject legislation, allowing the new map to influence the 2026 midterms regardless of ongoing legal appeals.