Missouri’s new gerrymander could be overturned by voters : NPR

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lately, on any given day, you’ll find Leann Villaluz knocking on doors around Kansas City to get people to sign a petition that would let voters decide the fate of the state’s new congressional map.

“There’s a sense of resentment, even to regular voters who aren’t as involved,” Villaluz says. “We have to pick up the slack for representatives who have been elected to do their simple duty and carry out the will of the voters. Instead, they think that we don’t know what’s best for ourselves.”

Missouri is the second state in the country, alongside Texas, to gerrymander its congressional map after President Donald Trump set off a nationwide redistricting battle in July to try to maintain control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms.

Multiple other states, including North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Ohio and Kansas could soon follow. California is trying to counter the Republican effort by redistricting in favor of Democrats, if voters pass a constitutional amendment next month.

Missouri’s Republican Governor, Mike Kehoe, signed the new map into law late last month. The state had six Republicans and two Democrats in Congress, but the new plan targets longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II’s seat in Kansas City.

Leann Villaluz (right) has been going door to door for weeks to collect signatures for a petition to put Missouri’s new congressional map to voters. She says most people she’s talked to are willing to sign.

Savannah Hawley-Bates/KCUR

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Savannah Hawley-Bates/KCUR

But with Villaluz and about 3,000 other volunteers, a group called People Not Politicians Missouri is working to overturn the state’s new map. If they’re successful in getting more than 106,000 signatures across the state by December 11, a referendum will go on the ballot in 2026 for voters to decide whether to want to keep or reject it.

The group says it’s already gathered more than 100,000 signatures and is still collecting more. If they get the signatures they need, the referendum would stall the map until voters weigh in next year.

Villaluz says everyone she’s spoken to has been excited to sign. She’s visited five neighborhoods so far around Kansas City, which would be split into three Republican-leaning districts under the new map. Villaluz even took her petition to the recent Chappell Roan concert to get signatures.

“Just about anyone that stops and hears what the petition is about is ready and willing to sign,” Villaluz says. “Whatever your vote is, it’s going to be diluted with the maps, and nobody wants that.”

Missouri attorney general and secretary of state fight back 

Not only does People Not Politicians Missouri have to gather enough signatures, it also has to take on pushback from top state election officials. The state’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that a referendum on redistricting violates both the U.S. and Missouri constitutions.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins did approve the group’s referendum petition this week after initially rejecting it. But in a press release, Hoskins claims that none of the signatures gathered before his approval date are valid.

“The process is clear,” Hoskins said in the release. “Every Missourian deserves confidence that ballot measures follow the law — not out-of-state agendas or confusion campaigns. Missouri values fairness and integrity, and this process reflects that.”

The executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, Richard von Glahn, said in a statement that Hoskins is “deliberately spreading misinformation for political purposes,” and that, according to the state constitution, the group was allowed to begin gathering signatures before the secretary of state’s approval.

A group called People Not Politicians Missouri has been working to gather signatures to overturn Missouri’s new congressional map. Signers have to leave one column on the petition, their congressional district, blank, because with the map changes, many don’t know which district they’re in.

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Savannah Hawley-Bates/KCUR

“Our campaign has gathered signatures at a historic pace — I’ve never seen Missourians unite and mobilize this quickly,” von Glahn said in the statement. “We will not be intimidated or distracted. This referendum will qualify, and Missourians — not politicians — will decide the future of fair representation in our state.”

The Democratic National Committee has joined the referendum effort and is contributing more staff and money to the cause. A slew of lawsuits have also been filed challenging the new districts.

A legal effort, too 

Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that seeks to block Hoskins from using the map to hold a congressional primary or general election and argues mid-decade redistricting without a new census is unconstitutional.

“My own voting power would be watered down,” Amezcua-Hogan says. “I would feel like I’m not being represented. And I think that at least personally, for the issues that are close to my heart that I’ve been working on for years, it would be incredibly discouraging.”

Amezcua-Hogan is running as a progressive for the Kansas City Council. The area she wants to represent would be split into three different congressional districts if the new map holds. When she talks to voters for her campaign, Amezcua-Hogan is also gathering signatures for the referendum effort.

She says Kansas City is already competing for federal resources and splitting it up into three districts will only make that more difficult.

“Kansas City is already at a point where we’re dealing with lack of affordable housing, lack of mental health resources, lack of transportation,” says Amezcua-Hogan. “It already feels like we’re fighting an uphill battle, and that uphill battle is only going to get worse.”

Most, but not Republicans, are on board

Lawmakers convene in an extraordinary legislative session at the Missouri State Capitol on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Jefferson City, Mo.

Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio

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Brian Munoz/St. Louis Public Radio

Missouri’s new congressional map easily passed the Republican-dominated Missouri Legislature in its week-long special session.

Michael Davis represents a suburb south of Kansas City and is one of the lawmakers who championed the new map. He’s part of the state’s Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican legislators who aim to push the party further to the right.

Davis says Missourians elected Republican lawmakers because they trust them to do what they think is best with redistricting.

“We should send a conservative message to D.C.,” Davis says. “The best way to do that is by sending seven Republicans who are going to ensure that Republicans keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

But 15 Republicans — including Jon Patterson, the speaker of the Missouri House — voted against the map in the state legislature. Nearly all of them are from parts of the state targeted by redistricting or in areas that would be moved into new districts.

Republican state Rep. Bill Allen represents a part of Kansas City’s northland that is evenly split between parties. He opposes mid-decade redistricting and said he was disappointed that Missouri seemed to follow Texas and Trump’s lead in doing so.

“I think I heard from one or two constituents that wanted me to vote in favor, and almost every other one that I heard was in opposition,” Allen says. “The job of the representative is to represent the district, not the party, certainly not the president. Just the district that I represent, the 39,000 people. Their will is my responsibility.”

Villaluz says she plans to keep gathering signatures for the next two months, until the group finds out if it has done enough to put redistricting on the ballot and potentially reverse Missouri’s gerrymandered map.

“I feel that Missouri is used as a guinea pig by the GOP,” says Villaluz. “They think that the average Missouri voter is dumber than we are, and they think that they can get away with a lot more here in a red flyover state, but that’s not the case.”

Villaluz says voters across Missouri won’t stand idly by, and she believes they’ll get the last word.