To pass a new congressional map and restrictions on the initiative petition process, Republicans had to dispose of traditions that defined decades of Missouri legislative politics.
And it wasn’t just Democrats who were on the losing end of votes who came to that conclusion. Republican Sen. Joe Nicola lamented last Thursday how he felt his power as a state senator diminished to pass a map that seeks to oust Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and a plan that would require some constitutional amendments to be approved in a statewide vote and in all eight congressional districts.
“I don't appreciate being handed one map or one piece of legislation without the ability to be able to make changes on it in a special session like this, because that's what I was elected to do,” said Nicola, R-Independence. “And when I don't have my voice, then 185,000 people I represent also lose their voice. And that's extremely irritating to me.”
Nicola, though, voted for both of Gov. Mike Kehoe’s special session agenda items, along with the majority of Republicans in the House and the Senate. Getting to Friday’s conclusion required disposing of some long-standing legislative norms and overcoming recent precedent.
Some lawmakers see that not as a sign of corrosion of the process, but as the arrival of a more unified GOP caucus, especially in the historically fragmented Senate.
“If you get to the really controversial issues, and by controversial, I mean ones that would be filibustered endlessly, a special session is one where we can get it done because we don't have all these other competing interests and goals,” said Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina. “We want to support the president. And we want to support Speaker Johnson. And hopefully we can send an additional Republican to Congress.”
Detractors contend that Republican leaders may ultimately regret passing a new congressional map and restricting the initiative petition process.
Beyond the fact that both may never be implemented, Democrats say the speed in which both measures got to the finish line could lead to a bitter and unproductive 2026 – especially if Democrats make good on their promises to gum up the procedural works or not cooperate on mandatory duties such as passing a budget.
A new era for the legislature?
In just the past two decades, lawmakers almost came to blows several times on the Missouri House floor, senators called each other names during bitter legislative disagreements, and the Republican majority used parliamentary maneuvers to overcome opposition.
But the special session featured a number of unprecedented actions that would have been unthinkable before July when it became clear that Missouri would join other states overhauling their congressional lines:
- Neither the House nor the Senate changed a single thing about the map Kehoe introduced in a social media video at the end of August. That’s in marked contrast to what happened in 2022 and 2011, when Republicans quarreled about how to draw the state’s eight congressional districts.
- Scores of Republicans who backed the map reversed course from 2022, when they declined to support a redistricting plan that converted Cleaver’s 5th District into a GOP-leaning seat. They said that such a plan could make three Kansas City-area districts much more competitive in bad years for the GOP – a scenario that’s still possible under the map sent to Kehoe’s desk.
- After more than a decade of unsuccessful attempts to pass less restrictive proposals, lawmakers sent to voters a plan that curbs initiative petition-driven constitutional amendment proposals. Proponents of the plan, which needs voter approval to take effect, concede the standard would doom past ideas that passed the state overwhelmingly though it would still keep the statewide majority vote standard the same for amendments the legislature puts before voters.
- While senators increased their use of the filibuster-ending previous question maneuver lately, they’ve never had to utilize it simply to pass rules governing a special session. The rules the Senate ultimately passed made it more difficult for Democrats to slow the process by talking indefinitely during routine orders of business.
One variable that was significantly different in this special session was President Donald Trump’s involvement. The GOP president has been pressuring states like Missouri, Texas, Indiana and Florida to redraw their seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Some Democrats claim the Missouri map was drawn up by the Trump administration.
But Republicans, like House Budget Chairman Dirk Deaton, tried to play down the idea that Trump forced them to vote for a map that the legislature collectively rejected three years ago. Several senators told St. Louis Public Radio they didn’t feel coerced to do anything when Trump called into a GOP caucus meeting after the chamber began the special session.
Still, many said they pursued the mid-decade redistricting gambit to prevent Democrats from winning control of the House next year. If Republicans lose the House, Democrats could launch investigations into the Trump administration's actions and block much of the president's agenda.
“One of the reasons I heard throughout the process is: Does Hakeem Jeffries represent what probably most of Missouri stands for?” Sen. Kurtis Gregory, R-Saline County, said. “And I would say that answer is probably no. So is that what we would want as an entire state? And I would lean toward that again being a no.”
Sen. Nick Schroer offered another theory to why special session agenda items moved fairly quickly, especially through a Senate that historically slows legislation down. Schroer, R-Defiance, said infighting that defined the past several years died down, creating a more unified Republican caucus.
And though prominent GOP legislators, including House Speaker Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, and Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, voted against both special session agenda items, that opposition didn’t change the session’s fairly quick trajectory.
“It feels good that the Republican Party is finally coming together. The personal attacks seem to be no more,” Schroer said. “We've got all branches of government kind of working together, the federal branches and the state branches, on moving a map to the governor's desk that represents more of Missouri values.”
Democratic disdain
Democratic lawmakers said the special session doesn’t showcase GOP unity but instead subservience to Trump. Some, including Sen. Stephen Webber, found this observation ironic, since Missouri Republicans spent almost all of their time during the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden lambasting the power of the federal government.
“We have never seen anything like this before,” Webber said. “And everybody would have sworn this never would have happened. It's an absolute shocking abdication of our sovereignty, of our independence, of our freedom, of our obligation to the Missouri voters and Missouri citizens.”
There was another noticeable unified front in this redistricting debate: Black Democratic lawmakers. In the past, some Democratic House and Senate members voted for GOP-created maps that protected Cleaver from a strong GOP challenge and kept the African American population in the 1st Congressional District relatively stable.
This time, African American lawmakers lambasted the map for targeting Cleaver – who forged strong relationships with prominent Republican members of the Missouri congressional delegation. And legislators like Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, D-St. Louis, called the map racist for not only going after Cleaver, but also placing largely white suburbs in Wesley Bell’s 1st District.
“You don't like our voice, so you are trying to take it away. You don't like our power, so you're trying to dilute it,” said Sen. Barbara Washington. “You don't like our community strength, so you're attempting to weaken it. Never in my life would I have thought that I, in 2025, would be in the same position as my grandparents. Who would have thought I'd be fighting for the same things they fought at when my grandfather was barely free and my grandmother died in 1960 never able to cast a vote.”
Democrats, especially in the Senate, were already promising to make 2026 miserable for their GOP colleagues after they ended debate on measures taking aim at voter-approved abortion rights and paid sick leave initiatives in this year’s regular session.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, said that the special session will ultimately make the entire Missouri legislative process worse.
“What Republicans wrought this week will reverberate throughout state history as a chilling example of what happens when a cowardly majority sacrifices not only what is just and right – but also its own self-respect,” Aune said.
All for nothing?
What’s most striking about this special session is that it may not actually accomplish what Missouri Republicans and Trump want.
While the new 5th District is Republican leaning, even GOP lawmakers concede that Cleaver could still prevail next year, especially if Republicans nominate a weak candidate and the environment is better for Democrats. And national groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are already searching for candidates to run against Reps. Mark Alford and Sam Graves, which could force Republicans to spend millions of dollars to prevent those Republicans from losing.
“Down the line, any of these seats can be competitive,” Schroer said.
While Republicans expressed confidence that the initiative petition proposal will pass next year, less restrictive proposals went down in flames in GOP-leaning states like Arkansas and Ohio. Groups like the Missouri Association of Realtors and the Missouri AFL-CIO to organize against the plan.
And a group called People Not Politicians is spearheading a referendum initiative that could prevent the map from going into effect before the 2026 midterms.
“I am already going to start cutting up old campaign signs to put petitions on there and start going out and collecting signatures,” said Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-St. Louis County.
