JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—Loud chants of “STAND UP! FIGHT BACK!” echoed through the halls of the Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Following the orders issued by President Donald Trump in early 2025, Missouri Republicans drew up and hurriedly passed what many are calling an illegal, racist, and sloppily drawn electoral map.
The new map seeks to destroy the seat of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. The GOP scheme would split the 5th District into two majority-white and majority-Republican districts to snuff out the ideas and values of those who live in Kansas City and send Cleaver to represent them in Congress.
As it currently stands, six of Missouri’s eight seats are held by Republicans and two by the Democrats—a far cry from what might be expected, given that nearly 40% of Missouri voters cast ballots for the Democratic Party in the most recent election. This new gerrymandered map would be gerrymandering the gerrymander, so to speak, as the state’s congressional delegation is already considered so slanted.
In response, people across the state joined forces in hopes of sending the new map to the dustbin. In a swift move, community organizations, churches, and unions have come together in a coalition called “People Not Politicians.”
The new alliance has taken the fight against the map on multiple fronts. In the courts, there is a legal battle to declare the map unconstitutional because of when it was formulated. The lawsuit argues language in the Missouri Constitution mandates that electoral maps be drawn according to the U.S. Census, which is done every ten years. This new map has been done outside of the census, coming in the middle of the decade.
The second front in the fight is in the electoral arena, where Missourians have made their voices heard in unprecedented fashion. To freeze the map and break it at the ballot box, organizers and volunteers have sought to use voter referendum laws.
State referendum law requires the signatures of 5% of turnout in the most recent election, or 110,000 people by the latest numbers, to get an issue on the ballot. Volunteers, organizers, and voters surpassed the required signature total by three times, getting an estimated 300,000 people to sign.
Yet even with this clear expression of public sentiment, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has yet to certify all of the signatures to allow it to go to the ballot and has dismissed 100,000 of them as “not valid” due to the dates they were signed.
The third front opened this week, with the mass action at the Capitol. On Wednesday afternoon, with no major vote or decision on the map, over a thousand Missourians flooded the statehouse to disrupt and disturb business as usual.
The crowd heard from leaders in the SEIU, UAW, Missouri Workers Center, Stand Up KC, Abortion Action, and more. Representatives prominently spoke of the struggles of everyday people, against the attacks on Missouri voters’ action to revoke the total abortion ban last election, in solidarity with attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, and against what many consider fascist attacks of ICE in Minneapolis and across the United States.
As the movement for fair elections in Missouri continues, many would say that Secretary of State Hoskins has shown his loyalty to the Republican Party and the wider anti-democracy movement. Yet, as shown by the recent rally, many Missourians are pushing for what they consider fair maps, making their voices heard across the state.
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