Full breakdown and timeline of Missouri’s congressional map saga
MISSOURI (KQTV) -- After days of back-and-forth arguments, Missouri voters will likely see the 2022 Missouri Congressional map used on their November ballots.
The U.S. Supreme Court has overruled a lower court's order requiring the state to use a 2025 congressional map.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh granted a stay of the order issued earlier this week.
The decision came less than an hour before the Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was set to appear before the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday. The Missouri Supreme Court has threatened to hold Hoskins in contempt for directing the use of the 2025 congressional map for the November election even after the court's previous ruling.
The back-and-forth regarding the Missouri congressional map will not impact Buchanan County voters and most of northwest Missouri, though. The northwest Missouri area is in the U.S. District 6 in both the 2022 map and the 2025 map.
Mary Baack-Garvey, Buchanan County Clerk, said the changes fortunately did not affect Buchanan County voters during the November primary election.
“What the voters see on the ballot has not changed at all. We are working on getting the sample ballots on the website hopefully sometime next week,” she said.
Garvey said voters in Buchanan County should just focus on doing their homework before heading to the polls by researching the candidates and amendments that will appear on their ballots.
On Sept. 12, 2025, the Missouri Senate approved the new boundaries by a 21-11 vote. The House had already approved the map by a 90-65 vote on Sept. 9.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed the new congressional district boundaries into law on Sept. 28, 2025.
A day later the opposition group, People Not Politicians Missouri, filed a veto referendum.
The Missouri Supreme Court certified a veto referendum earlier this month for the Nov. 3 ballots.
The referendum asks voters whether the two new maps should take effect in 2027.
Because the referendum is on the ballot, the new map would not take effect until after the 2026 election. That means Missouri would use the maps approved in 2022 for the 2026 election.
More recently, the Missouri Supreme Court overruled a lower court order that had required the state to use the 2025 congressional map.
Boundaries shifted in five counties with large populations that had previously been divided, while a new split was introduced in Boone County in central Missouri. The changes took effect during Missouri’s 2022 congressional elections.
Following the state's high court ruling, Hoskins applied to the Supreme Court of the United States for an emergency administrative stay to reinstate the 2025 map.
On Sept. 8, 2026, Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the emergency request. Following Kavanaugh's denial, the Missouri Supreme Court issued an order to hold Hoskins in contempt of court for attempting to supersede its previous ruling.
Hoskins was ordered to appear in court Thursday to provide reasons as to why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court.
Following the oral arguments, the court also ordered Hoskins to stay in Jefferson City, Missouri, so he could attend all other hearings.
