Missouri’s congressional map chaos gets even messier

Good morning,

For a few minutes Tuesday, Missouri’s congressional map fight looked finished.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had rejected the state’s emergency bid to revive Republican-drawn gerrymandered districts, leaving in place a Missouri Supreme Court order requiring the state to use the map used in 2022 and 2024.

Then a federal judge in St. Louis blew the thing open again.

Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark barred Missouri from using any map other than the 2025 version. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway quickly said Missouri would follow Clark’s ruling. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins told election officials the same.

And then, late Tuesday night, the Missouri Supreme Court answered.

The court ordered Hoskins to explain by noon today why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for directing election officials to use a map it has explicitly forbidden him from implementing. He’s been ordered to appear before the court Thursday morning.

Where does that leave Missouri, two months before Election Day?

In chaos, basically. There is still no settled answer about which congressional districts Missouri will use in November.

Candidates ran primaries in districts that may not exist in November. Voters could wind up casting general-election ballots in races where they had no role in choosing the nominees.

And local election officials are staring at court orders that appear to point in opposite directions: One says the 2025 map can’t be used, while the other says Missouri can’t use anything else.

Welcome to Missouri’s 2026 congressional elections.