Opponents of Missouri's new Republican-drawn congressional map are organizing around an attempt to temporarily block the new lines until voters have the final say.
It's the latest wrinkle in a process that President Donald Trump and his party hope will net the GOP an additional seat in Congress after next year’s midterm elections.
Now that Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe has signed the law creating the new congressional map, under state law, Democrats and other opponents of the move have until mid-December to gather more than 100,000 signatures from six of the state's congressional districts in order to qualify a referendum for a future statewide ballot. That means a majority of voters would have to approve the maps before they're implemented.
If that statewide vote was during the regular general election in November 2026, that would prevent Republicans from having the maps in place for the midterm House races happening on the same day. Lawmakers could try to speed up the process and call a special election sooner in the hopes that, with voter approval, the maps can be in place for the midterms.
But even in that case, there would be a squeeze between the signature deadline in December and the end of the candidate filing period for the 2026 elections, which is in March.
A coalition of groups, including the state and national Democratic parties, are supporting the signature drive from the People Not Politicians campaign committee to secure the up-or-down vote on the new maps.
Richard Von Glahn, a representative with the group, told NBC News that People Not Politicians has already held trainings with more than 500 people, and that he's "overwhelmingly" confident that the group will meet its goals and block the implementation of the new maps until voters either approve or undo the change to the maps.
"No one was asking for the Legislature to come back, call a special session and pass gerrymandered maps that will make political accountability more difficult for average, everyday Missourians," Von Glahn said, noting that the maps were signed into law over the weekend without much fanfare.
"This really represents something that you do see politicians prioritizing themselves over the needs of their constituents," he continued. "So what's at stake here is people's belief that their democracy belongs and is accountable to them.”
The petition drive has until the middle of December to turn in its signatures. Then, if it qualifies for a vote, it's a question of when voters would have their say. The filing deadline for Missouri's August primary closes in March, and it could be difficult to rush a statewide vote on the new maps in time to still conduct 2026 congressional races under the existing schedule.
Opponents of the maps have also filed a series of legal challenges, trying to block them through a different venue.
Missouri Republicans passed their plan earlier this month, which carves up Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-area district to create a new Republican-leaning seat. Trump has called on Republican-dominated states to redraw their maps to help his party's chances of retaining the House majority in next year's midterm elections.
The maps cruised through the Legislature without much opposition.
"It will ultimately result in Missouri values being reflected and represented in Washington, D.C. — and we know Missouri is a very conservative state," state Rep. Dirk Deaton, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, told NBC News earlier this month.
Deaton went on to add that Trump's leadership was "helpful" in "raising this national conversation," but that many Republicans were interested in pursuing a similar map after the last round of redistricting, before landing on the current one.
After a bit of a delay, Kehoe signed the maps into law Sunday, releasing a statement in which he declared Missouri values are "closer to each other than those of the congressional representation of states like New York, California, and Illinois." His office did not have an additional comment on the petition drive when contacted by NBC News on Monday.
Trump won Missouri by more than 18 percentage points last year, and no Democrat has won a statewide election there since 2018, when then-state Auditor Nicole Galloway won re-election. But Democrats have had more success securing political victories backing ballot initiatives and referendums in recent years, such as a 2024 amendment to expand abortion rights, a 2020 amendment expanding Medicaid coverage and a 2018 rejection of a right-to-work law.
Scott LaCombe, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri, told NBC News that the initiative process, as well as recent results, show how the "average voter is not in lockstep" with one political party.
"While we have this top-line polarization — Team Republican, Team Democrat — most voters are more complicated than we think," LaCombe said.
The referendum drive had an early setback: The secretary of state, following an opinion from the state attorney general, rejected the petition, arguing that while the legislation redrawing the maps was approved weeks ago, the bill had not actually been signed into law at the time the petition was submitted to the state for review. The attorney general's opinion said that under state law, petitions could only be gathered once the legislation was signed into law.
Von Glahn said his group would take that decision to court, but he said it wouldn't jeopardize the drive to get enough signatures.
Russ Carnahan, the head of the Missouri Democratic Party, connected the debate over the congressional maps to an ongoing battle between the Legislature and organizers over whether to restrict or strengthen the citizens' initiative process in the state, as well as a forthcoming attempt to secure a vote on enacting a nonpartisan redistricting commission to draw lines in the future.
"They are separate, but they’re very connected under the broad message of protecting voter power in Missouri from the Republican politicians that want to take it away," Carnahan said, adding: "That’s a great message and a great fight any day."
Missouri Republicans' quest to enact new GOP-favored maps is part of a national redistricting battle.
Texas redrew its lines to give Republicans a chance to net up to five seats there, leading California legislators to send their proposal — which could neutralize Texas' move by netting Democrats up to five seats — to voters later this year. Meanwhile, Republicans in other red states such as Ohio (which has to redraw its lines under state law), Indiana, Kansas and Florida have floated the idea of drawing new maps to net their party more seats in Congress.
Some other Democratic governors have threatened to try to redraw their states' lines too, but many of those governors are either hamstrung by state laws or likely don't have much wiggle room in carving up their states for their party's gain.
