{"id":16262,"date":"2025-12-04T13:02:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/inside-the-overlooked-multi-million-dollar-fight-to-block-republicans-missouri-gerrymander\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T13:02:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:02:01","slug":"inside-the-overlooked-multi-million-dollar-fight-to-block-republicans-missouri-gerrymander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/inside-the-overlooked-multi-million-dollar-fight-to-block-republicans-missouri-gerrymander\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the overlooked multi-million dollar fight to block Republicans\u2019 Missouri gerrymander"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republicans and Democrats are quietly pouring millions of dollars into a fight trying to block Missouri\u2019s new gerrymandered congressional map, as each party scrambles for any advantage they can find in the national fight for the House majority in 2026.<\/p>\n

Missouri is one of six states that have redrawn their congressional lines \u2014 after President Donald Trump kicked off the redistricting war by pushing Texas to redraw \u2014 with the GOP-dominated legislature passing a new map in September<\/a> that would eliminate Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver\u2019s Kansas City-based seat.<\/p>\n

But unlike in many other states, Democrats have a clearer path to try to block the map, at least for next year\u2019s midterms. They\u2019ve now launched an effort that operatives in the state say is attracting an unprecedented amount of money \u2014 and legal fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine the kind of democratic paralysis our state would be in if this happened every 10 years, or every time we decided to draw new maps,\u201d said Aaron Blake, a GOP strategist based in Missouri. \u201cThat would just be chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost immediately after the map passed, Democrats in the state organized a campaign to repeal the new map through popular referendum. The campaign committee, People Not Politicians, will need to submit about 107,000 valid signatures before the Dec. 11 deadline to send the new maps to a referendum. If they submit enough valid signatures, the state would be temporarily unable to enact the new maps until voters can weigh in on the ballot measure.<\/p>\n

Well-funded organizations on both sides have since rushed into the state, duking it out in a fight that has already spawned a complicated nest of court cases and some aggressive tactics seeking to undermine Democrats\u2019 referendum campaign.<\/p>\n

If the state\u2019s new maps do come to a referendum, some Republicans are concerned voters might reject their bid to aid Trump\u2019s effort to skew the odds of maintaining control of the House in Republicans\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a very uphill battle for Republicans if [the referendum] is on the ballot,\u201d Blake said.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Missouri, meanwhile, are confident they\u2019ll have enough signatures to push the maps to a referendum \u2014 and they\u2019re optimistic voters will be on their side when it comes time to vote on the maps.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Republicans] are afraid for this to go on the ballot, because they believe that Missourians will vote it down,\u201d said Doug Beck, the top Democrat in the state Senate. \u201cThat\u2019s why they\u2019re trying as hard as they can to not let it go to the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Campaign Committee donated a combined $100,000 days after the Put Missouri First PAC, the GOP\u2019s ballot measure-focused committee, was formed. That was followed by two separate $1 million contributions from the Trump-aligned Securing American Greatness PAC<\/a> and the American Action Network, the nonprofit arm of House Republicans\u2019 primary super PAC.<\/p>\n

Officers for Put Missouri First \u2014 including the group\u2019s treasurer and a law firm that shares the organization\u2019s address \u2014 did not respond to interview requests.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. urged his social media followers to support<\/a> the effort to block the referendum \u2014 a sign of the battle\u2019s growing significance to Republicans outside of the state.<\/p>\n

For the most part, Democrats in Washington have stayed out<\/a> of People Not Politicians\u2019 signature gathering campaign. But Democratic-aligned dark money groups have stepped in to contribute over $1.25 million to People Not Politicians, including a $500,000 contribution from American Opportunity Action, a newly-created left-leaning nonprofit that is also supporting a ballot measure campaign in Michigan to block a rewriting of the state\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

The committee also received $250,000 from former Rep. Cori Bush, the Missouri progressive who was first elected in 2020 but lost a primary in her St. Louis-area district last year. Bush is running for Congress again in the same seat<\/a>, which would be largely unaffected by Missouri\u2019s new map.<\/p>\n

That level of fundraising from both parties is striking for a ballot measure fight in a state with a long history of referendum battles. Benjamin Singer \u2014 who has worked on different referendum committees in Missouri since 2018, and is the campaign director for a group seeking to put a constitutional amendment<\/a> in front of voters to strengthen the state\u2019s referendum laws \u2014 said he\u2019s never seen a ballot measure fight with as much money coming in for both sides of the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t dominated with the big money, because they haven\u2019t needed to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some opponents are seeking to impede Democrats\u2019 signature collecting through questionable tactics. The Kansas City Star obtained a copy of a contract<\/a> offering a canvasser for People Not Politicians $5,000 to stop collecting signatures. The paper could not identify the source of the contract, which Blue Light News has not independently verified.<\/p>\n

And Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, has sought to use Trump\u2019s aggressive anti-immigration moves to target a firm working on signature collection for People Not Politicians that she accused of employing \u201cillegal aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a pair of social media statements, Hanaway said her office is investigating the firm, Advanced Micro Targeting, and said she\u2019s contacted ICE about the situation. Advanced Micro Targeting has denied Hanaway\u2019s claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hanaway is also fighting against a potential referendum in the courtroom \u2014 she filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to declare that a referendum to block the legislature\u2019s new maps violates both the U.S. Constitution and Missouri\u2019s Constitution, leaning on principles of the \u201cindependent state legislature\u201d theory that the Supreme Court largely rejected in the Moore v. Harper <\/i>case in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Hanaway said \u201cMissouri will not allow out-of-state political groups to silence the voices of our citizens or override our state\u2019s constitutional process. The Missouri Attorney General\u2019s Office will defend the authority of Missouri\u2019s elected representatives at every turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zachary Bluestone, a Trump-appointed judge assigned to the case, said he\u2019ll decide whether to block the referendum ahead of the Dec. 11 deadline to submit signatures.<\/p>\n

The federal case is one of at least seven lawsuits filed over the new maps or the potential referendum. Among those is a case brought to a Missouri state court by the ACLU, which has partnered with People Not Politicians, seeking to nullify the new congressional districts on the grounds that mid-decade redistricting violates a clause in the state\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

People Not Politicians is separately suing Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for his handling of referendum procedure, including authoring language for the potential ballot measure that frames the old maps with six GOP-leaning seats as \u201cgerrymandered,\u201d and the new district lines with seven GOP-leaning seats as being a \u201cmore compact\u201d map that \u201cbetter reflects statewide voting patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on in Missouri is an example of constitutional hardball,\u201d said Travis Crum, a professor at Washington University Law School in St. Louis who specializes in election law.<\/p>\n

And even if the ballot referendum goes in front of voters, it isn\u2019t a guarantee the map will be blocked for 2026. The plethora of redistricting-related court cases in Missouri are being adjudicated in hearings and rulings that will likely occur before the end of January \u2014 giving state election officials enough time to schedule a potential ballot measure election next year, operatives and court watchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think the noise has peaked or will be peaking between now and mid-January,\u201d Blake, the GOP consultant, said.<\/p>\n

A version of this article first appeared in Blue Light News Pro\u2019s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Blue Light News Pro. You\u2019ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day\u2019s biggest stories.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans and Democrats are quietly pouring millions of dollars into a fight trying to block Missouri\u2019s new gerrymandered congressional map, as each party scrambles for any advantage they can find in the national fight for the House majority in 2026. Missouri is one of six states that have redrawn their congressional lines \u2014 after President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}