Missouri Republicans thought a gerrymandered congressional map was a lock. After a weeks-long legal fiasco, Democratic candidate Fred Wellman, who called the effort “monumentally dumb,” says the party is left with old districts and an angry electorate, according to a Guardian report.
Following Trump’s push for mid-decade redistricting, Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a new map in September 2025, known as the Missouri First map, that carved up Kansas City Democrat Emanuel Cleaver’s district. The group People Not Politicians collected more than 300,000 signatures to force a referendum on the map, but Secretary of State Denny Hoskins declined to certify it on the August 4 deadline.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously reversed him on September 3, sending the referendum to voters and blocking use of the map in 2026. Republicans then took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which turned them away each time. At one stage, the map designated for the general election changed three times in just seven days.
As a result, many Missourians are voting in a different district than they did in the August primary. Eric Leventhal, a 35-year-old stay-at-home father who lives near a district line, said he isn’t sure which Democrat will be on his ballot. “It is dizzying and embarrassing, frankly,” Leventhal said.
Cleaver stayed in the race even though the new lines would have favored Trump there by 18 points, and he’s now virtually assured of re-election. He said many voters disliked the redistricting tactic.
“People didn’t like mid-decade redistricting,” Cleaver said.
Wellman, a former Army pilot who once led the Lincoln Project, is challenging Rep. Ann Wagner in a district Republicans had tried to make safer for her. He says volunteers and donations have jumped since the ruling and that the fiasco put Missouri on the national radar.
Hoskins has said his office will comply with the courts.
Organizers have one more task. Voters must vote “no” on Proposition A to repeal the legislature’s map, and Missourians have almost always sided with repeal in past referendums. Volunteers such as Holly Swift, who canvassed with her 12-year-old daughter, say they’ve yet to meet anyone supporting it.
Republicans may not be finished. A GOP state senator posted “8-0 2027” on X after the court decision, and Cleaver expects the fight to resurface.
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