The U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive a redrawn Missouri congressional map, and the state's top election official has directed local authorities to hold the November election under the districts passed in 2022.
Missouri is set to hold its November general election using congressional districts drawn in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to revive a redrawn map backed by President Donald Trump that Republicans had hoped would secure an additional House seat in the fast-approaching midterms.
The order capped a legal battle that has stretched nearly a year and left voters uncertain about which districts they will actually vote in. No justice publicly dissented, and the court issued no detailed reasoning, as is common when it acts on emergency appeals.
Within hours of the ruling, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins directed local election authorities to use the 2022 map -- the version the state's highest court had already ordered. The decision means the November ballot could look different from the August primary, an extremely rare turn that could shift the candidate choices for more than a million potential voters, or nearly one in four statewide.
Missouri's redistricting clash began more than a year ago, when the state became the second Republican-led state -- after Texas -- to redraw its U.S. House lines. President Trump pressed for the new map as part of a broader effort to give voters more competitive districts and to shore up the party's position heading into the midterms. Supporters argued the revised lines better reflected the state's political geography and gave rural communities a stronger voice.
The revised map targeted a Kansas City-based seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, aiming to help Republicans win seven of the state's eight House seats.
Opponents gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to force a statewide vote on the new districts and submitted them in December. Hoskins waited until August -- the same day as the primary -- to reject the petition, arguing that a referendum could not be used for congressional redistricting. That delay allowed Missouri to run its August primary under the new lines.
Earlier Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court convened a hearing on whether to hold Hoskins in contempt for not following its orders to use the 2022 districts. Hoskins had instead pointed local officials to the new map, citing a competing order from a federal judge issued Tuesday.
Judges repeatedly pressed a state attorney to send guidance Thursday directing local authorities back to the 2022 version. "We're in a precarious situation," Chief Justice W. Brent Powell said.
Hoskins later acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court's action, saying in a statement that his office was directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map. The state court then found him in contempt for violating its order to stop using the new map, promptly declared that his latest guidance corrected the problem, and imposed no consequences.
Under the 2022 map, Missouri's 5th Congressional District covers the Kansas City area alone. The revised version shed portions of that seat to neighboring districts and stretched the remainder into rural Republican territory. About 59% of the district's potential voters would be new under that map, according to an estimate cited in the case.
Cleaver was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in August under the new lines. State Sen. Rick Brattin won the Republican primary for the right to challenge him and was among those suing in federal court to keep the new map in place. Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Onder, another plaintiff, said Thursday, "This isn't over," pointing to arguments still set for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The fight also revives a rare question: whether a state can switch congressional districts between a primary and a general election. Other states have redone primaries under revised lines. Alabama held a new primary in August after the Supreme Court allowed a change following its original May vote. In Missouri, no court has called for a redo.
The redistricting referendum will still appear on the November ballot, after the state Supreme Court last week ordered Hoskins to place it there. Missouri voters will therefore weigh in on the new map even as the state prepares to run the election under the old one.
Outside the court, activist Keith Rose, who helped collect signatures for the referendum, said he hoped the ruling would end the uncertainty. "We need some finality. We need to focus on the real issues that Missourians care about," he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. With the 8th Circuit still weighing the merits and a statewide vote ahead, Missouri's congressional lines remain one of the most closely watched redistricting fights in the country -- and a test of how far the President's midterm map strategy can reach. Republicans say the work is not finished, and the appeal keeps the door open to a late change before ballots are cast.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive a redrawn Missouri congressional map, and the state's top election official has directed local authorities to hold the November election under the districts passed in 2022.
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