Missourians on Tuesday rejected a congressional map approved at the request of President Donald Trump.
The map, aimed at ousting Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, was subject to a referendum via Proposition A. She was losing 62% to 38%, according to the Associated Press, which called the race. This means that congressional lines passed during the 2025 legislative session will not take effect for the 2028 elections.
“It took a while, but it’s what voters signaled to politicians when they flooded the Capitol and when they flooded the governor’s office with phone calls saying not to do it,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians. “We knew this would be the outcome since this whole thing started. That’s why politicians worked so hard to try to stop this vote from happening. Because I think they knew it too. Missourians don’t want our elections rigged by insiders in Washington.”
The defeat of Proposition A marks a somewhat disappointing end to a map that dominated Missouri politics for more than a year.
Trump has been pressuring a slew of Republican states to redraw their congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a move explicitly aimed at preventing the Republican Party from losing control of the House of Representatives. Missouri was the second state, after Texas, to follow Trump’s directive, with lawmakers passing a map that divided Kansas City into three districts and reshuffled districts in the St. Louis area.
But opponents of redistricting gathered enough signatures to put the map to a referendum. After a legal proceeding that lasted more than a year, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state must use a 2022 map with a generally safe seat for Cleaver for the November election. The 2025 map was used for the August 2026 primary.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in September, Republicans effectively gave up trying to save the map, while the “no” camp raised millions of dollars and waged a well-organized opposition campaign.
For his part, von Glahn said the redistricting strategy may have played a role in a disastrous night for Missouri Republicans.
Not only did the GOP lose two seats in the Missouri Senate and 15 seats in the Missouri House, but Democrat Fred Wellman defeated Congresswoman Ann Wagner in the 2nd Congressional District.
“They spent so much time and energy and litigation and shenanigans on this,” von Glahn said. “Well, voters are looking for real solutions when it comes to our schools, the cost of living, our infrastructure, everything else. And so, I think you see Missourians punishing politicians who are only focused on themselves and their political careers, and not on what voters want and need.”
Several Republican Party politicians pointed out that a Missouri Supreme Court ruling earlier this year opened the door for lawmakers to redraw the congressional map again in the future. But if Republicans draw another congressional map in 2027 or 2028, opponents of redistricting could again collect signatures to put the issue up for a vote.
With Wellman’s victory, von Glahn said Missourians could have a congressional map that reflects the state’s true political makeup.
“They were also looking to support Ann Wagner, because they knew she had been out of touch with this neighborhood for years,” von Glahn said. “And so, maybe their fears and predictions about what was going to happen there came true here.”
Missourians’ support for Amendment 6 on Tuesday also complicates Republican efforts for redistricting. The measure contains language prohibiting the General Assembly from passing legislation overturning the results of a referendum.
This story has been updated with reaction from the card’s opponents.
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