Missouri’s congressional redistricting fight isn’t over. While most attention has been on which map will be used for the 2026 election, another clock has been ticking.
On Nov. 3, Missouri voters will decide Proposition A — whether to approve the congressional map passed by the legislature in 2025.
A yes vote approves the new map. A no vote leaves the congressional boundaries adopted in 2022 in place.
That makes November’s referendum a separate — and potentially more lasting — battle than the fight now consuming the courts.
If the 2022 map remains in place for this year’s congressional races but voters approve Proposition A, the victory for supporters of the old map would be short-lived. The 2025 map would become law and could govern future elections, including 2028.
If voters reject Proposition A, the 2022 map stays in place. But even that might not end the fight. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in March that the General Assembly may redraw congressional districts in the middle of the decade. Lawmakers could return in 2027 with another map for 2028.
Meanwhile, the statewide campaign over Proposition A has had little time to develop — in part because of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ handling of the referendum.
People Not Politicians submitted more than 300,000 signatures in December. Hoskins waited until Aug. 4 — primary Election Day and the statutory deadline — to declare the referendum unconstitutional.
The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately disagreed, ruling the petition legal, but the damage had been done, Hoskins had compressed the period in which campaigns could speak to voters with certainty that Proposition A would appear on the November ballot.
And voters appear far from settled. An August SLU/YouGov poll found 35% planning to vote yes (keep the revised map), 32% no (keep the 2022 map), and 33% unsure. Researchers said the large undecided share may reflect confusion about what the ballot language means.
The campaign has to reach voters statewide in about five weeks, including areas where the map changes little and the residents may not have much interest, or may just follow the . The 7th District in southwest Missouri and 8th District in southeast Missouri are untouched, while the biggest changes split Kansas City among three districts.
Missouri’s referendum history adds another wrinkle. Of 27 previous referenda, voters rejected the General Assembly’s action 25 times.
Whether that history repeats itself is far from clear.
What is clear is that the fight over the 2026 map and the fight over what Missouri uses afterward are not the same battle.
Election Day is approaching, one-third of voters remain unsure — and the longer-term map fight has barely begun.
