JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—A day after hundreds of people rallied outside the Missouri Supreme Court, justices dealt President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and the Republican Party a major defeat. The court ruled on Thursday that Missouri’s newly redrawn, Trump-backed congressional map cannot be used in the November 2026 election—or in any election after that—unless voters approve it themselves at the ballot box.
The rally was the latest turn in a fight that goes back nearly a year. Last September, a coalition of churches, community organizations, and labor unions packed the Capitol building in Jefferson City by the thousands, demanding fair electoral maps. In the year since, Missourians have collected and submitted over 300,000 signatures to overturn the racist, sloppily drawn, and unconstitutional redistricting passed by the state legislature.
This map, demanded by Trump, seeks to steal more seats for the Republican Party and provide a further cushion of yes-man politicians for the policies that are destroying the economy at home in the U.S. and putting the future of the world at risk for the billionaire agenda.
The new map targeted the seat of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. The GOP scheme carves more than 70,000 minority residents out of the 5th District and replaces them with whiter, more rural, more Republican territory. It engineers an 8.5% jump in the district’s white population, the largest demographic shift of any district in the new map—diluting the voting strength of the Kansas City community that has sent Cleaver to Congress for more than two decades.
As it currently stands, six of Missouri’s eight seats are held by Republicans and two by the Democrats—a surprise to some, given that nearly 40% of Missouri voters cast ballots for the Democratic Party in the most recent election. As many activists argue, the new gerrymandered map would be gerrymandering the gerrymander, since the state’s congressional delegation is already considered so slanted.
Hoskins had refused to certify thousands of the petition’s signatures and worked to draw out the certification process past the deadline—an obstruction effort the Missouri Supreme Court put to rest.
Judge Ginger K. Gooch wrote in her ruling Thursday that Hoskins and the Republican Party “are restrained and enjoined from implementing, using, or mandating the use of the congressional redistricting in HB 1 for the November 2026 general election or at any other time thereafter unless and until HB 1 is approved by the voters at the November 2026 general election and takes effect 30 days thereafter.”
Following the ruling, People Not Politicians Executive Director Richard Von Glahn stated,
“This victory reaches beyond Missouri. In a year when map-drawing has become a national weapon, courts across the country are watching what happens here. A Missouri win for the referendum is a signal that the people still hold the power.”
The ruling doesn’t erase the massive red-baiting campaign Republicans waged nationally against the People Not Politicians coalition, though. Leading MAGA figures, including Donald Trump Jr. and the Missouri GOP, circulated allegations that coalition partners were tied to the Communist Party USA, an effort to divide the coalition and endanger grassroots organizers.
In a December X post, Trump, Jr., wrote that Von Glahn was “trying to STEAL a GOP house seat in Missouri through an unlawful referendum,” and linked to a volunteer sign-up form that read: “We’re leading a statewide initiative in Missouri to stop the Communist Party’s very own Richard Von Glahn, who is using George Soros’s dark money to fund an unlawful referendum that would STEAL a Missouri GOP House Seat.”
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins joined in, citing the CPUSA’s own coverage of the gerrymandering fight in a Facebook post and declaring, “If the Missouri Communists are ‘big mad’ at me, I must be doing something right…. I will never bow down to the communist party!”
Now the final decision is in the hands of the voters, where all of Missouri will decide whether Republicans will be allowed to impose their map and strengthen their hold on power. The time to hit the streets and talk to our neighbors is now, and the working-class coalition in Missouri is going to keep this marathon running.
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