Dem
53
Ties
2
GOP
45
It is a fight to the death over the House district MO-05, which includes Kansas City, MO, and some of its suburbs. It used to be D+12 and is represented by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO). After Donald Trump ordered states to re-gerrymander their maps, Missouri did so in Sept. 2025 and the district became R+9, which was nearly hopeless for Cleaver.
In Dec. 2025, a group called People Not Politicians and its executive director, Richard von Glahn, filed 300,000 signatures in support of a ballot initiative to force a vote on the new map. on Aug. 4, 2026, Missouri SoS Denny Hoskins (R) rejected the petition just before the deadline because mumble mumble Donald Trump mumble mumble more seats for Republicans mumble mumble. The primary was held using the new map.
Von Glahn sued in state court. On Sept. 3, 2026, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the ballot measure met all the legal requirements and so must be on the ballot. On Sept. 4, Hoskins asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the state Supreme Court. Four days later, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees the Eighth Circuit (which includes Missouri), denied Hoskins' petition. That should have been the end, but no. Republicans are nothing if not persistent.
Richard Brattin, who won the GOP primary using the new map, went to U.S. district court to argue that since he won the primary using the new map, they should use that in November. U.S. district judge Stephen Clark, a Donald Trump appointee, granted Brattin's petition. Von Glahn sued and on Sept. 9, in an unsigned order, the U.S. Supreme Court put Clark's ruling on hold and sent the case back to the Eighth Circuit. On Sep. 17, it upheld Clark's order.
Then Von Glahn went back to the Supreme Court a third time. Hoskins and Missouri argued that Von Glahn didn't have standing to sue this time. The Supreme Court didn't buy that and on Friday ruled that the Eighth Circuit court was wrong and the Purcell principle—election rules should not be changed too close to any election—applied here, so the 2022 map should be used in 2026. What happens in 2028 depends on whether the ballot measure succeeds or fails. But in any event, Cleaver is safe in 2026 and the Missouri delegation will probably be 2D, 6R on January 3, 2027, just as it is now (V)