How Republicans lost the map battle

You may know that the 2022 Missouri map will be used for the Nov. 3 election. What you should also know is how the state’s top Republican lawmakers conspired against the voters’ wishes and their constitutional rights. Since the last federal election, nine states have redrawn their congressional maps. Trump and his MAGA cronies had hoped Missouri would be the tenth in a perverted effort to reshape congressional districts to rig the midterm election.

Missourians have exercised their constitutional right to a referendum 28 times throughout our state’s history to secure important reforms and challenge government decisions. Yet Missouri’s Republican leadership pursued a mid-decade redistricting plan that ignited a statewide fight over the integrity of that right, the rule of law and the principle of majority rule. The referendum battle garnered national attention and highlighted how far the corrupt political leadership in Missouri was willing to go to do Trump’s bidding.

The first thing to remind you is that this GOP scheme was based on the orders of I-won-the-2020-presidential-election Trump. Every Republican lawmaker in the country was required to line up behind the MAGA plan to rig the November elections.

Gov. Mike Kehoe responded by calling the Legislature into a special session to adopt a new congressional map in the middle of the decade. The MAGA plans couldn’t wait, and the governor quickly signed the map into law. This paved the way for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway to do the rest of the dirty work. The duo tried every trick in the book to push the racist, unfair map on resistant voters.

To be absolutely transparent, Rev. Emanuel Cleaver was the target. Cleaver is a Democrat and an African American. He is currently serving in the 5th Congressional District and is the former mayor of Kansas City. The goal was to get rid of Cleaver and claim seven of Missouri’s eight congressional districts.

The Republican-dominated Legislature drew a map that completely obliterated Cleaver’s district. It split the district into three, with one stretching all the way to rural mid-Missouri. The 2025 map looks like a 5-year-old kid drew it on an Etch A Sketch toy.

Before the ink was dry on the signing, lawsuits were filed to challenge its constitutionality, but the people lost that first round. An outraged electorate organized to oppose the new map. The People Not Politicians (PNP) coalition emerged to lead a formidable statewide campaign. The coalition collected over 305,000 signatures to put the referendum on the ballot.

GOP trickery continued.

Hoskins threw out 90,000 signatures. PNP anticipated that power play, which is why the group collected more signatures than what was legally required.

Hanaway filed a federal lawsuit to block what she called an illegal campaign. The Missouri Constitution is clear that voters have the power to hold a referendum on the state’s congressional districts. Hanaway also falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants were working the campaign. The smear tactics were signs of desperation.

The ensuing legal jujitsu took three lawsuits before state and federal courts. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the case three times, and its third ruling was final. For most observers, it was the Missouri Supreme Court that exposed the indefensible petition by attorneys arguing the Republicans’ case. The defiant Hoskins and Hanaway thumbed their noses at court rulings and continued to uphold the 2025 map. That is, until the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Hoskins in contempt.

A defeated Hoskins was humiliated in both the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. His co-conspirators waved the white flag and agreed that his office would direct the state’s local election officials to use the map informed by the 2020 census data.

They were willing to assault the state and federal constitutions, hijack a voter-led referendum and abuse the power of their offices to achieve the goal of stealing the November election.

There is no doubt that Proposition A will be defeated. The people have spoken and acted. We have seen how willing Republicans are to break the law and disrespect the core principles of democracy.

Democracy depends not only on elections, but also on the willingness of those in power to respect the law, accept judicial authority and recognize that the people — not political parties — are the ultimate source of governmental legitimacy.

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