Thousands of people filled the Missouri Capitol on Wednesday to protest Republican-led redistricting. The protest opposed the Republican plan to gerrymander the state and make it harder for voter-led constitutional amendments to pass.
The Missouri House passed both the proposal to make it more difficult to pass some constitutional amendments and the redistricting map that would split the Kansas City metro into three districts and consolidate St. Louis into a smaller district. Both measures are now in the hands of the Senate, where Democratic lawmakers are gearing up for a filibuster.
Protesters gathered outside the Capitol before filling the rotunda and the floors above. Terrence Wise, an organizer with low-wage workers group Stand Up KC, said Missouri lawmakers were “doing the bidding of a dictator and Washington, D.C.” and corporations instead of listening to voters.
“We elect these folks, but by gerrymandering our voices away, they’re trying to take away our freedoms and our political representation, and that ain’t right,” Wise said. “They want to make it harder for us to transform our everyday living conditions. But we’re the Show-Me State, which means we have a mandate to show our elected leaders what democracy looks like.”
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Thousands gather to protest the Missouri legislature’s efforts to redraw congressional maps to favor the GOP and amend the initiative petition process on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
The new map would split Kansas City, currently in the 5th Congressional District, along its historical racial dividing line, Troost Avenue. A large portion of the city’s Black community would be moved to the 4th District, represented by Republican Mark Alford.
GOP leaders, including Gov. Mike Kehoe, have said that Missouri is a “Republican state” and the 7-1 delegation more accurately reflects voter priorities.
“Missouri’s conservative, common-sense values should be truly represented at all levels of government, and the Missouri First Map delivers just that,” Kehoe said in a statement announcing the special session.
Republican state Rep. Dirk Deaton, who sponsored the House bill, said the new map is more compact and competitive than the one passed in 2022.
“Our friends on the other side have so decided they’d rather be out of touch with Missouri voters than to fight for their votes,” Deaton said this week.
Black Democratic legislators have said the Republican map is racist. The NAACP sued over the new lines, arguing that Gov. Mike Kehoe’s decision to call a special session was unconstitutional.
Celisa Calacal
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KCUR 89.3
Linden Bowie, a pastor in St. Louis County, joined with the National Baptist Convention on Wednesday to criticize efforts by Missouri Republicans to gerrymander Kansas City.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Democrat from Kansas City, said she was grateful for the protesters’ presence and that House representatives are standing with Democratic senators as they try to stop the two measures.
“Our democracy is only as good as the effort we put into it, and we have to fight,” Aune said. “This fight takes all of us. This fight is not just in the legislature. It’s not just in Missouri. It’s in states across the country. It’s in homes and communities where people are having conversations. We need to harness this righteous anger because November of 2026 is coming, and we’ve got to vote them out.”
Protesters spoke against Kehoe, Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, and House Speaker Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, for their part in redrawing the state’s congressional map.
Patterson voted against both proposals. But Fran Marion, a Kansas City Wendy’s worker who organizes with the Missouri Workers Center, said it was too little, too late. Marion questioned why Patterson didn’t take a public position on redistricting or try to stop it from moving forward.
“Make no mistake: Speaker Patterson has been actively facilitating an authoritarian power grab,” Marion said. “This vote, while a step in the right direction, is just a fig leaf to try and hide his shame in ignoring the will of the people to make this bill a reality.”
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
UAW Local 249’s Sydne Donaldson, 33, of Kansas City, right joins hundreds of union workers to protest the Missouri legislature’s efforts to redraw congressional maps to favor the GOP and amend the initiative petition process on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
The rally follows multiple large-scale protests against redistricting around the state, including on Labor Day in the St. Louis area and in Kansas City, where hundreds of protesters lined Mill Creek Park.
Usually, states redraw their districts early in the decade after the U.S. Census. But President Donald Trump set off a redistricting battle nationwide in July, first calling on Texas Republicans to redraw their map to help win five more seats in the 2026 midterms.
Democratic leaders in California are asking voters to back a plan that would give them an advantage in five seats, while Trump is calling on Indiana and Florida to join Missouri in strengthening Republican chances.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Democratic Chair Russ Carnahan, center, and Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel watch as thousands rally against a GOP-led effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps and amend the initiative petition process on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the Capitol in Jefferson City.
Denise Lieberman, director of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, spoke at the rally. She said redistricting should be about keeping communities together, but instead, the new map would tear Kansas City apart. She called on protesters to testify against the plan in the Senate.
“The people pick their politicians, but here in Missouri, the politicians are trying to pick their voters,” Lieberman said. “That ain’t right, and you know something else, it’s not legal. Missouri lawmakers are embarking on an illegal, unconstitutional and anti-democratic action to strip Missourians of their voices and the ability to be heard.”
After rallying in the rotunda, protesters filled the Senate chambers as the second phase of the special session began. Hundreds of others continued their chants: “They can’t win, so they cheat” and “Whose state? Our state.”
Protecting the initiative petition process
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Thousands decry the Missouri legislature’s efforts to redraw congressional maps to favor the GOP and amend the initiative petition process on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Hundreds of protesters were part of unions from across the state. Members from different locals of the United Auto Workers, the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Laborers, the Amalgamated Transit Union and others joined to rail against the Republican proposals.
Jay Bolser is a member of the UAW Local 249 in Claycomo. He’s the chair of the Community Action Program, which runs the legislative and political side of the union. He says two buses full of UAW members came from the Kansas City area to protest.
“That’s what democracy looks like, right?” Bolser said. “It’s to make sure that the representatives and the senators of this great state understand that we are their voice, not the other way around. They need to represent us and that’s what they’re here for.”
In addition to redistricting, Missouri lawmakers seek to make it harder for citizen-led initiative petitions to be added to the ballot. Under their plan, a constitutional amendment proposed by citizens would need to pass in all eight congressional districts; currently, an amendment needs only statewide approval to pass.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Josiah Zimmer, 29, of St. Louis’ Tower Grove East neighborhood, joins thousands in protesting the Missouri legislature’s efforts to redraw congressional maps in favor of Republicans and change the initiative petition process on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
In 2017, Republican lawmakers in Missouri passed a right-to-work measure, which prevents companies or unions from requiring workers to join a union or pay dues. But in 2018, unions put right-to-work back on the ballot and defeated it through a voter-led initiative petition process.
The same process was used to overturn the state’s abortion ban last year as well as raise the state’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave. But lawmakers overturned paid sick leave last month, and are trying to put an abortion ban back on the ballot.
Ramonda Watkins is a nursing home worker and member of SEIU Healthcare. At the rally, she said it would be detrimental to everyone in the state, not just union members, if Republican lawmakers succeed in making it harder for voter-led constitutional amendments to pass.
“Taking away our power to put citizen-led petitions on the ballot is another way they’re attacking our democracy,” Watkins said. “They stole our paid sick time, and now they want to steal our power. Being in the union, I know that our voice is the best way to stand up and make change.”
Voters may have a say
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Leslie French, a 61-year-old Platte City resident, protests Trump-backed efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the Capitol in Jefferson City.
While the redrawn congressional lines appear to be on a fast track to pass by the end of the week, voters may end up having the last word.
Because too few members of the House voted for the new map for it to go into effect immediately upon Kehoe’s signature, redistricting opponents will have 90 days to collect roughly 106,000 to put the measure up for a statewide vote. If they get the signatures, the map can’t go into effect unless Missourians approve it.
“I don’t even like politics, OK? I just know we need transparency,” Jefferson City resident Frida Tucker said. “We need to stop the power grab. We don’t need to do it every three years, OK? Like, something’s not right here.”
The Respect Missouri Voters Coalition announced it will host more than a dozen launch parties on Wednesday night, including in Kansas City and St. Louis, to begin gathering signatures for the 2026 ballot.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Sen. Doug Beck, D-St. Louis County, speaks to Missourians rallying against a Trump-backed effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps to favor the GOP and amend the initiative petition process on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Sullivan resident Glenn Kage, a longtime union official, said the map would have a chance of getting rejected at the ballot box – even though voters have elected GOP candidates in statewide positions.
“They want fairness over the political way the Republicans are doing it,” Kage said.
Wise, of the Missouri Workers Center, said getting to vote on the redrawn map is “the way it should be.”
“Missouri voters should get to pick their elected leaders. It shouldn’t be the other way around,” Wise said. “But not only that, we should have a way to take part in democracy. It shouldn’t be gerrymandering to begin with, we need representation.”
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
Milea Carbello, 28, of Springfield, Mo., leads hundreds in chanting during a demonstration decrying the legislature’s efforts to redraw Missouri’s congressional maps to favor the GOP on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Others contended that the map could end up backfiring on Republicans. Some GOP lawmakers didn’t vote to go after 5th District U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II in 2022 because they were worried that the 4th and 6th districts could be vulnerable in a wave election year for Democrats.
Bethany Mann, who ran against 3rd District Congressman Bob Onder in 2024, said Republicans may end up pairing up traditionally Democratic Columbia with St. Charles County. While St. Charles County is Republican-leaning, it’s become more competitive in recent years — and voters there tend to back progressive ballot initiatives, like a constitutional amendment legalizing abortion.
“When lawmakers ignore the voice of the people, the people ultimately just find new lawmakers,” Mann said.
Liz Callahan, who is running for the state House, said she was optimistic that redistricting opponents could gather signatures — even though the 90-day time period is shorter than other comparable ballot items.
“There’s a whole infrastructure of people who are ready to get out there and get signatures,” Callahan said. “I think we should be able to do it.”
Jason Rosenbaum and Brian Munoz of St. Louis Public Radio contributed to this report.