Missouri Special Session: Everything You Need to Know
By now you’ve seen the news: Governor Kehoe called a special session of the Missouri legislature to address Congressional redistricting and initiative petition reform.
What’s on tap for this very special session?
Missouri First Map
Missouri needs a Congressional map that reflects our values. This one delivers.
While Liberals cry gerrymandering, this map is less gerrymandered than the previous one.
This map is more contiguous and compact, splitting fewer counties and municipalities.
It achieves this while leaving two districts untouched and preserving each current member in their current district.
Compare this to the map in Illinois.
5/ Take another look at Illinois:
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) August 5, 2025
đź“ŤIllinois Democrats drew a district from East St. Louis
➡️ Up to Springfield
➡️ Then east to Decatur
➡️ Then a sharp turn to grab Champaign
90 miles of squiggly nonsense—just to rig ONE seat.
This is what Dems call “defending Our Democracy.” pic.twitter.com/TK6syLROsu
President Trump was absolutely right to call on Conservatives to fight back against the egregious use of redistricting in Blue States.
Missouri’s Conservatives are stepping up to the call and deserve credit for it.
Initiative Petition Reform
For years, Conservatives have pointed to our broken initiative petition system as a reason Missouri failed to compete with its neighbors.
It has been far too easy for Liberal special interests and foreign donors to bigfoot into our state and impose their radical agenda.
Missouri sends Conservatives to Jefferson City with trifecta control – and supermajorities in both chambers.
Still, dark money Liberal initiatives use misleading language to confuse voters and sneak their policies in through the back door.
We saw it when George Soros funded an initiative that advertised a ban on lobbyist gifts, but also handed control of the redistricting process to the state’s only statewide elected Democrat at the time. Missouri voters were forced to repeal this provision two years later.
A similar process is underway with regard to 2024’s “reproductive freedom” amendment. Voters were rightfully disturbed to learn that the amendment could be interpreted to eliminate all health and safety protections on Abortion facilities. In 2026, they’ll have a chance to restore health and safety protections by voting yes on Amendment 3.
So what’s in the Governor’s call?
Constitutional Ban on Foreign Funding
This one will be familiar to watchers of Missouri election integrity.
The Governor’s enacting legislation for initiative petition reform includes a call to enshrine Missouri’s ban on foreign funding of ballot measure campaigns in the state constitution.
This is common-sense, wildly popular policy that should be a no-brainer.
The FEC bans foreign nationals from contributing to candidates for elected office but that protection doesn’t extend to state ballot measure campaigns.
Last year, the Missouri legislature passed a statutory ban on foreign funding with bipartisan support.
Statewide Support
Our state constitution is important.
Amendments affect the whole state.
It shouldn’t be possible to amend the constitution with policies that are only popular in Kansas City and St. Louis.
The Governor’s call would require that an initiative petition receive a majority share of the vote in each of the state’s eight Congressional district to pass.
An amendment to the state’s constitution should have the support of the whole state.
Transparency
The Governor’s call gives the public more opportunities to inspect petitions before they reach the voting booth, and increases the penalty for fraud. There will be no more hiding behind a Liberal court-written ballot description and television ad dollars.
Every petition would be required to hold public comment sessions before signature gathering begins.
The full text of the ballot measure would be required to be available at election sites and polling places.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant when it comes to stopping misleading ballot measure campaigns.
Stopping Fraud
To qualify a constitutional amendment for the ballot, Missouri requires signatures from 8% of the voters who cast a ballot in the last gubernatorial election in two-thirds of its eight congressional districts.
That works out to about 170,000 valid signatures needed in 2026.
Anyone who has participated in this process understands that a large percentage of the signatures collected will be invalid – people will write illegibly, list the wrong address, sign despite living outside of the state or district.
Given that reality, it’s common for petition campaigns to turn in twice that amount.
Staff in the Secretary of State’s office can’t possibly verify hundreds of thousands of signatures, creating an incentive for petitioners to pad their counts through fraud.
This legislation creates a new election crime for fraudulently signing or gathering petitions.
Missouri Special Session
Bottom Line
President Trump put a call out there for Conservative states to step up.
Missouri has.
Conservatives have two potential wins staring them in the face as Missouri’s special session approaches.
Contact your legislators in support.
Missouri never backs down from a fight.
— Liberty Alliance (@LibertyAllUSA) August 29, 2025
New maps NOW. #MOLeg #MOGov pic.twitter.com/8SRcdW6HBd
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA