Missouri’s congressional map is finally set for this year’s elections — after voting has already started.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for the state to use its 2022 map on Friday, ruling against Republicans who targeted a Democratic-held seat in a redistricting push. It was the third time this month the Supreme Court ruled in a way that left the state using the older map, and almost certainly the last.
The unsigned order comes as voting in the general election in Missouri is already underway, with in-person absentee voting having started on Tuesday and ballots having been sent out to eligible out-of-state voters as early as last Friday.
“Given this Court’s two prior orders in this litigation, our conclusion that this was error should come as no surprise,” the order says.
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And the court did not mince words for lower courts. “The District Court and Court of Appeals should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the 2022 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri,” the order says. “And the District Court and Court of Appeals should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the 2025 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.”
Republicans had sought to redraw Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s 5th District seat, splitting Kansas City into three congressional districts and likely giving them a 7-1 map.
The ruling from the Supreme Court ensures that Cleaver will keep the same district lines as prior years, where he is highly favored to win in November.
Missouri was one of the first states in which Republicans redrew their lines last fall after President Donald Trump asked state lawmakers to make maps more favorable to the party ahead of a tough midterm year.
The drama over Missouri’s congressional maps has spanned four courts over the past year. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Denny Hoskins, the secretary of state, must use the 2022 map for the midterms, and the Supreme Court declined to halt it.
Then, in a separate case, a federal district judge ordered state officials to use the redrawn map. The Supreme Court halted that order. A federal appeals court on Monday gave new life into the party’s push for the more GOP-friendly map, ruling that the new map should be used unless the Supreme Court steps in within a week.
People Not Politicians, the advocacy group leading the effort against the Republican redistricting push, quickly appealed on Tuesday night. The Supreme Court did so Wednesday.
Hoskins and the two Republican candidates had argued that Missouri voters shouldn’t have to vote for different candidates than they did in the primary, and that candidates shouldn’t have to run in different districts.
“Represenative Onder and Mr. Brattin each won their August primary under the district lines the 2025 map drew, and the 2022 map would force each of them to stand for election in November before a substantially different, non-consenting electorate,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote Wednesday afternoon.
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