{"id":28136,"date":"2026-08-05T05:01:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28136"},"modified":"2026-08-05T05:01:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:01:46","slug":"missouri-secretary-of-state-comes-up-with-reason-to-not-certify-challenge-to-new-republican-gerrymander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28136","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Secretary of State Comes Up With Reason to Not Certify Challenge to New Republican Gerrymander"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n\n\n<p>Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) announced Tuesday \u2014 Missouri\u2019s primary day, the latest he could legally push the decision \u2014 that he will not certify a petition that would\u2019ve challenged Republicans\u2019 new 7-1 gerrymander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>He deemed the attempt to force a veto referendum to be \u201cinsufficient\u201d because \u201cchallenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Missouri law lets voters block legislation if they gather enough signatures on a petition, then win a statewide vote.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cAt issue is not the number of signatures turned in to challenge the new congressional map, but the fact that the referendum itself is null and void by virtue of the fact that it is unconstitutional,\u201d he said at a press conference. \u201cTherefore House Bill 1 \u2014 the \u2018Missouri First\u2019 map \u2014 continues to be the law of the land.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThere is no doubt in my mind that I will be challenged on this,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>His rationale seemed to mostly rest on the fact that the ability to challenge a map is not explicitly written into the state constitution.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>People Not Politicians, the group behind the petition to challenge the map, immediately responded that it plans to file a lawsuit against Hoskins\u2019 declaration of insufficiency.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The new gerrymander eliminates Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver\u2019s (D-MO) Kansas City seat, turning a 6-2 Republican gerrymander into a 7-1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Hoskins dragged out certification as long as he could, despite People Not Politicians asking the state Supreme Court to force his hand. The court <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/live-blog-update\/new-lawsuit-aims-to-stop-missouri-secretary-of-states-slow-walking-to-force-use-of-gerrymandered-map\" target=\"_blank\">rejected<\/a> that effort, in addition to ruling that the new map is not unconstitutional, and that the map was not automatically suspended when the group turned in its signatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Hoskins overread that latter decision to mean that the new gerrymander went into effect immediately, despite the court ruling that it could only decide whether the map is in effect after Hoskins certified the petition. People Not Politicians argued, unsuccessfully, that by delaying until the day of Missouri\u2019s primary, Hoskins was informally declaring the map insufficient but also shielding that decision from judicial review.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) said at the time: \u201cAs long as the status quo is the new maps, delay works in our favor.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Missouri is one of the Southern states that raced to eliminate its majority-Democratic, majority-Black seats after the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <em>Louisiana v. Callais<\/em> made racial discrimination in redistricting virtually impossible to prove. The furious gerrymandering in these states has turned a projected Democratic flip of the House of Representatives into a much closer call.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) announced Tuesday \u2014 Missouri\u2019s primary day, the latest he could legally push the decision \u2014 that he will not certify a petition that would\u2019ve challenged Republicans\u2019 new 7-1 gerrymander. He deemed the attempt to force a veto referendum to be \u201cinsufficient\u201d because \u201cchallenging a congressional map is unconstitutional&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-04-at-6.26.33-PM.png?w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}