JEFFERSON CITY, MO – Missouri’s Republicans used a special session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe at the urging of President Trump to pass new maps that split Kansas City into three congressional districts in a desparate attempt to kick Rep. Cleaver out of office. Numerous legal challenges have already mounted to challenge the legality of putting forward new maps so far from new census data.
Thousands of Missourians, including hundreds of union members, went to Jefferson City to protest the action, but Republicans did not listen. The public outcry is believed to be one of, if not the largest, such in the history of the state.
To make matters worse, Republicans have also attempted to change the way citizen initiative petitions work in order to make it impossible for voters to overturn bad bills. If this is allowed to stand, this would allow Missouri Republicans to make Missouri a so-called “right-to-work” state as early as next year, just years after union members mobilized to beat “right-to-work-for-less” in a massive bipartisan operation statewide. If this legislation is not reversed, your union will be attacked in 2026 and will slowly be weakened to the point where your pay and benefits will collapse.
The change to the initiative petition process would require voters in all eight congressional districts, which they just gerrymandered, to approve of any initiative petition in order for it to pass. That would make it possible for as few as 5% of voters to block pro-union legislation. It would have made it impossible for Missourians to legalize sports betting or marijuana.
In recent years, unions have used the ballot question process to repeal “right-to-work-for-less,” expand healthcare, raise the minimum wage, and more.
Missourians will have the opportunity to mobilize against this, with a statewide signature gathering operation to kick off soon, and if they don’t, pro-union legislation will be gutted, leaving Missouri to functionally become Mississippi.
