Missouri voters reject new GOP-friendly House map

A ballot measure that looks to enact a more Republican-friendly House map in Missouri is projected to fail, delivering a major win for Democrats, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

Voters rejected the ballot measure, known as Proposition A, which would have allowed lawmakers to pass a new set of congressional lines ahead of the next U.S. census that would have weakened Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s (D-Mo.) Kansas City-based district and given Republicans a new House pickup opportunity .

The proposition is projected to fail by double digits, with over 60 percent opposing the measure with just 15 percent of the vote reported early Wednesday morning.

The GOP has a 6-2 edge in Missouri’s congressional delegation, but the new map would usher in a 7-1 Republican-favored House delegation after 2028. Rep. Wesley Bell’s (D-Mo.) St. Louis-area House seat would be the lone Democratic district.

The failed passage of the new district lines means that Missouri will operate under the same districts it had in recent past cycles.

Missouri has served as ground zero for a national redistricting saga that’s played out between Republican and Democratic states. President Trump and national Republicans encouraged GOP lawmakers in states like Texas and Missouri to redraw their maps to create new pickup opportunities for their party as Republicans braced for a competitive midterm environment.

Democrats in other states responded in kind, though they were only successful at creating new maps in California ahead of the 2026 elections.

The battle in Missouri was particularly fierce amid litigation over whether the new House maps could be enacted in time for November as a coalition looked to put the new congressional lines to a referendum, stalling the House map’s immediate implementation.

The state’s high court, made up of a majority of appointees by Republican governors, ruled in September that the GOP-favorable map could not immediately go into effect until voters weighed in on the new lines in November. The litigation made it all the way up to the Supreme Court several times but to no avail for the GOP.