New U.S. House districts in Missouri backed by President Donald Trump will be in effect for the 2026 midterm election cycle after a judge ruled Friday that the districts can be used while a statewide referendum fight plays out. Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe said opponents who sought to stop the map from taking effect did not have legal grounds to sue right away and were asking the courts to weigh what he said was a political question better left to Missouri’s executive and legislative branches.
Stumpe’s order, issued Friday in Cole County Circuit Court, rejected claims by opponents who argued the districts should have been automatically suspended in December after more than 300,000 petition signatures were submitted to trigger a statewide referendum on the map. The judge said the new districts could be suspended only if it is ultimately determined that the referendum petition meets legal requirements and includes enough valid signatures.
Stumpe wrote that allowing suspension before the legality and validity of signatures are checked would invite manipulation. “Without verification requirements, any group could suspend legislation merely by submitting boxes of invalid signatures, signatures of unregistered voters, forged names, or other fraudulent submissions,” he wrote. “Clearly, the framers of Missouri’s Constitution could not have intended such an easily exploited system that would allow bad-faith actors to paralyze the legislative process.”
Under Missouri law, the Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has until Aug. 4 — the date of the state’s primary election — to determine whether the referendum petition’s signatures are valid. Based on progress reports from local election authorities, the petition appeared to be on track to reach enough signatures, though Hoskins has questioned whether the referendum process is legally proper for congressional redistricting.
Hoskins said earlier this month, when asked by The Associated Press, that he believed “the referendum process was never meant to be used for congressional redistricting.” In a statement after Friday’s ruling, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said the decision was “a win on all counts.” The ACLU of Missouri, which sued on behalf of voters who signed the referendum petition, said it would appeal.
The Missouri litigation also includes disputes over how the referendum question would be presented to voters if it moves forward. Stumpe ruled last week that a ballot summary originally prepared by Hoskins was unfair and likely to bias people in favor of the new districts, and he ordered a revised summary to be used in its place.
Missouri is one of several states embroiled in a national redistricting battle that began last summer after Trump called on Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to try to give the GOP an advantage in the midterm elections. The dispute spread after Texas acted and California Democrats responded with new districts, setting off a tit-for-tat pattern that has played out across states, with voters in Virginia later deciding in an April 21 election whether to authorize a mid-decade redistricting plan.
In Missouri, Republicans and Democrats have pursued competing maps over the past few years. The state is currently represented in the U.S. House by six Republicans and two Democrats under a map passed in 2022 based on the latest census. Republicans had previously rejected an attempt by some within their party to push for a map that they said would give Republicans a path to seven seats, citing concerns that it could spread Republicans too thin and backfire if Democrats benefited from favorable conditions in an election year.
The judge’s ruling comes after Republicans set aside those concerns under White House pressure to revise districts for partisan advantage. A new map passed in a September special legislative session was aimed at helping Republicans win a Kansas City-area seat currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by reshaping the 5th Congressional District and reallocating portions of Kansas City into neighboring districts represented by Republicans. By Friday’s ruling, the map’s use in the upcoming primary and general elections was no longer blocked by the lawsuit over suspension.
Six Republicans have filed to run in a primary against Cleaver, and the deadline for others to join the race is Tuesday. Missouri’s courts have also considered other legal challenges to the new map, including a Missouri Supreme Court decision earlier this week rejecting an argument that mid-decade redistricting is prohibited by the state constitution, and a separate trial court rejection of a claim that the new districts fail compactness requirements. Plaintiffs in that compactness case have appealed to the state Supreme Court.