Judge allows Missouri Republicans’ redrawn congressional map to stand for November midterms

The ruling rejected an effort to put the GOP-backed map before voters in a statewide referendum.

Missouri Republicans cleared a significant hurdle Wednesday when a state judge ruled the party’s redrawn congressional map can stand for the November midterms.

The New York Times reported that Judge Daniel Green of the Cole County Circuit Court rejected an effort to place the new districts before voters in a statewide referendum.

He sided with Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, who contended that Missouri’s Constitution does not permit a referendum on congressional redistricting and that reworking districts this close to an election would create chaos. Green put it starkly in his ruling, writing that changing the maps at this stage is “not just ‘impractical,’ it is impossible.”

The decision arrives after months of uncertainty. Missouri moved early among states redrawing lines as part of a national Republican effort, backed by President Donald Trump, to protect the party’s slim House majority. The map in question was drawn to flip a seat currently held by a Democrat.

People Not Politicians, the group challenging the map, had gathered signatures to force a public vote, a mechanism that under Missouri law pauses legislation until voters weigh in. Supporters say they collected enough. But on Aug. 4, the same day the state held primaries using the new map, Hoskins determined the referendum did not qualify for the ballot.

The group has already appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. Charles Hatfield, an attorney for the organization, told the Times that “there are some more games left to play here,” expressing confidence about their prospects on appeal.

Executive director Richard von Glahn framed Wednesday’s outcome less as a loss than a necessary step, arguing the state had spent months slowing the process and that with the case now out of Cole County, “the real decision will be made.”

That optimism runs into a difficult precedent. The state’s high court has already weighed in favorably on the redistricting push once, ruling in March that lawmakers could redraw the map outside the standard once-a-decade timeline.

Timing may prove decisive regardless. Missouri’s deadline to add a referendum to general election ballots falls on Sept. 8, and it remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will take up the appeal before then.