Court ruling leaves Missouri officials unsure which congressional maps to use now

Jack Harvel, The Kansas City Star on Sep 9, 2026

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Missouri’s appeal, the secretary of state’s office instructed election officials to use the same Congressional maps the state used in 2022 and 2024.

The move marked a notable shift for an office that had aggressively pushed for the map lawmakers passed in 2025 at President Donald Trump’s urging to create more Republican-leaning districts.

The guidance was undercut just hours later when the office advised election officials to take the opposite approach after a federal judge in St. Louis issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state from using any map but the one the Supreme Court had just rejected.

The message to election officials was that the federal court’s ruling takes precedence over the state Supreme Court’s order.

The fast-paced push and pull of the directives, along with dueling orders from the state Supreme Court and a federal district court, have left election officials with little to do but wait and see how the case is resolved.

“After speaking to our attorneys, we’re just monitoring with them as well as ourselves and seeing what the various courts are deciding and waiting for final guidance,” said Tiffany Ellison, the Democratic director of the Clay County Election Board. “Right now we’re just waiting like everyone else.”

In a statement, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was more explicit, calling the decision a resolution to the ongoing chaos surrounding the maps.

“The Missouri First Congressional Map stands as the Law of the Land,” Hoskins said. “This victory halts a full-on constitutional crisis. It ensures the candidates Missourians nominated in the August primary election are the same candidates running in the same congressional districts they will vote on in the November general election.”

The waiting game is running against a federal deadline requiring ballots for military members overseas to be finalized by Sept. 19. In his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Hoskins, a Republican, asked the court to rule by Sept. 14 to give election authorities time to implement any necessary changes.

“Absentee voting starts soon, but you know we still, that being said, have a little bit of time,” said Allen Seabaugh, president of the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities. “We’ve got to know which districts to use, and ideally we will have a result of that before you know we have to send out absentee ballots.”

Ellison, the Clay County elections director, said she would like the matter to be resolved as soon as possible, but the latest her office could implement changes would be Sept. 17.

Shawn Kieffer, the Republican director of the Kansas City Election Board, said his office is working to have both maps ready to go pending the court’s final decision.

“I know the Kansas City Election Board; we’re going to do ballots for both sets of lines, and even though we think we’re going to go with the current law of the land right now, which is the new map,” Kieffer said. “It could change, but we’ll be ready.”

Tuesday was an important deadline for election administration in Missouri and the last day courts can order a change to the ballot. In a legal filing in the federal case, Hoskins argued through an attorney that the deadline prompted him to notify Missouri election officials that they should use the gerrymandered congressional map.

“This was the only reasonable thing to do given the reality that Missouri’s state law deadline for altering the ballot passed following this Court’s order,” Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who is representing Hoskins, said in court documents.

The waiting game

For months, Hoskins delayed certifying a referendum on House Bill 1, the congressional map designed to oust Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who has represented Kansas City in Congress for over 20 years.

Citizens quickly gathered enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot, but Hoskins waited until the last possible day — the day of the August primary — to decide whether it would appear.

Hoskins rejected it, claiming the proposal was unconstitutional. Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court overruled Hoskins, placing the issue on the ballot and freezing the law until voters approve or reject it in November.

After the decision, U.S. Rep. Bob Onder and state Sen. Rick Brattin, both Republicans, filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the ruling unconstitutionally disenfranchises voters. The temporary restraining order requires the state to use the gerrymandered map, which Hoskins and other Republican officials support.

The decision was appealed to the federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Cleaver dismissed the temporary restraining order in a statement that largely celebrates the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to intervene.

“I am confident that the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court will prevail regardless of the temporary order granted in U.S. Federal District Court of Eastern Missouri,” he said.

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