51ºÚÁÏ

People Not Politicians, which has already raised an estimated $850,000 to bankroll the campaign, said Monday it is collecting signatures to give voters a say in the controversial gerrymandering push designed to secure one additional safe Republican congressional seat for President Donald Trump in next year’s midterm elections.

“We are out on the streets today gathering signatures with Missourians. We are prepared to let Missourians have the final say in this,� People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn told reporters Monday.

The groups opposed to the new maps say elected officials shouldn’t get to pick who they represent.

“People should be at the center of our democracy, not politicians,� von Glahn said.

The announcement comes as progressive organizations also are fighting the GOP redistricting plan in court. The ACLU has filed two challenges to the new maps, while the NAACP was in a Cole County courtroom Monday asking a judge to rule that the special session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe to redraw the boundaries was illegal.

Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh, who served as a top legal aide to former Gov. Mike Parson, took the case under advisement.

Under the Missouri Constitution, opponents of the new congressional lines can ask for a statewide vote on the proposal if they can gather an estimated 107,000 signatures from voters in six out of the state’s eight congressional districts. The map measure could not go into effect until voters have their say.

Of the 27 previous times a referendum has been placed on the ballot to challenge legislation approved by the General Assembly, voters have rejected the bills all but twice.

“It is one of the most sacred rights Missourians have,� von Glahn said.

Unions used the same playbook in 2018 when they pumped $15 million into a campaign to overturn a so-called right-to-work law championed by then-Gov. Eric Greitens. The law would have barred workers in private sector jobs from being compelled to join a union.

The anti-union law was nullified when 67% of the voters rejected it in an August special election.

At issue is a new congressional map approved by the House and Senate last week that moves downtown Kansas City and areas to the south and east to part of the GOP-held 4th District that stretches into southwest Missouri. Northern suburbs would become part of the Republican-held 6th District, which covers most of the state north of the Missouri River.

The new 5th District would then extend east into Republican-heavy mid-Missouri, encompassing Sedalia, Boonville and Jefferson City. If the new districts had been in place for the 2020 presidential elections, a Post-Dispatch analysis shows the GOP would have won each by double-digit margins, and only the 1st District, in 51ºÚÁÏ, would have voted for a Democrat.

The redistricting marks a break from tradition by redrawing congressional lines despite having done so three years ago. In the past, lawmakers have redistricted once a decade following the release of the U.S. Census.

In recent months, however, Trump has urged Republican-led states across the country to redraw their maps ahead of midterm elections where the narrowly divided U.S. House typically flips away from the president’s party.

Kehoe must sign the map for it to go into effect. He said his office is reviewing the legislation. He has 45 days to take action.

Money to pay for the opposition campaign began flowing soon after the governor signaled he wanted lawmakers to transform Missouri into a 7-1 Republican-leaning state.

Following Friday’s vote in the Senate, the Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, a 501©(4) dark money organization based in Washington, D.C., wrote a $500,000 check to People Not Politicians to help boost its campaign war chest.

The organization, which does not have to disclose its donors, has spent millions in support of ballot initiatives across the country, including more than $1 million to last year’s successful campaign to enshrine abortion rights in Missouri’s constitution.

Republicans are already pushing back against the signature collection effort, with Secretary of State Denny Hoskins initially balking at accepting a petition for the effort to begin by saying the new maps must first be signed by Kehoe before canvassers can begin their work.

Von Glahn said the secretary of state’s role in the process is ministerial, and he is confident any procedural roadblocks imposed by Republican officeholders will be blocked.

“We do not have to wait for the governor to make a decision,� von Glahn said. “That does not impact our right to a referendum.�

Signatures must be turned in by Dec. 11.

The challenge could have an effect on the traditional February filing date for candidates running in the 2026 election cycle.

Along with awaiting Limbaugh’s decision in the NAACP case seeking to toss out the results of the special session, the ACLU and the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center have taken aim at the gerrymandering push.

On Friday, the groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kansas City voters, asking a Jackson County court to declare the mid-decade redistricting unconstitutional and block its implementation.

“In a blatant illegal and unconstitutional power grab, the governor bowed to the whims of Washington while sacrificing representation in both urban and rural populations of Missouri,� said Gillian Wilcox, director of litigation for the ACLU of Missouri.

Another suit challenging the new map was filed in Cole County and Cleaver said Thursday he also planned to sue.