{"id":29013,"date":"2026-08-05T21:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29013"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:42:23","slug":"missouri-republicans-count-on-foot-dragging-to-help-jam-through-gerrymander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29013","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Republicans Count on Foot Dragging to Help Jam Through 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 Republicans have been transparent about their strategy to drag out the response to a challenge to their new 7-1 congressional map, with state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) saying publicly during a radio interview earlier this year that \u201cdelay works in our favor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) proclaimed a petition voters brought to trigger a statewide veto vote on the new map \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/missouri-secretary-of-state-insufficient-challenge-gerrymander\" target=\"_blank\">insufficient<\/a>\u201d Tuesday, claiming that it is unconstitutional to challenge gerrymanders under the referendum process.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>People Not Politicians, the group that organized the petition and sent in \u201cover three times\u201d the number of signatures required to overcome any Republican meddling, filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/lawsuit-missouri-gerrymander-petition\" target=\"_blank\">lawsuit<\/a> challenging the insufficiency declaration in state court Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cEight months after we turned in the signatures, he has now discovered a legal problem,\u201d People Not Politicians Executive Director Richard von Glahn said to reporters Wednesday. \u201cThis is frankly not a discovery after some meticulous research that he has done. It is, in fact, part of a pattern of his obstruction and attempts to thwart the will of the people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The group says it\u2019s clear that the purpose of Hoskins\u2019 foot dragging was to put the petition on ice until the elections are held under the 7-1 gerrymander. Tuesday\u2019s primaries were conducted under that new map \u2014 in itself a legally dubious move.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>If the courts side with People Not Politicians that Hoskins wrongly refused to certify the petition, the validity of the primary results is thrown into flux.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThere may have to be a court case on that if somebody wants to challenge the primary,\u201d Chuck Hatfield-Stinson, legal counsel for the group, said Wednesday. \u201cBecause you don\u2019t actually have to live in the congressional district in which you\u2019re running, there is a possibility that courts would say, \u2018well, we have a nominee.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s possible there are vacancies that have occurred because of the improper election and the parties can fill those vacancies using the statutory process,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s possible that we would need to have another primary election.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cThis is a mess that Denny Hoskins created,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The group said that Missouri law sets a deadline of September 8 to change the ballots before the November election, so litigation will have to happen at light speed \u2014 all by Hoskin\u2019s design.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>When asked whether he expected Hoskins to try to slow walk the upcoming court process too, Hatfield-Stinson was succinct, pausing to sip out of a mug that read \u201cwe can\u2019t fix stupid but we can give it a court date\u201d: \u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n    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that \u201cdelay works in our favor.\u201d\u00a0 Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) proclaimed a petition voters brought&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2234051197.jpg?w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29013","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\/29013","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=29013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}