Political Worm Is Turning in Missouri

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Resident

Missouri, the "show-me" state, has two large urban centers. Kansas City and St Louis, which are basically Democratic - and the rest of the state is predominantly Republican.   The Republicans have, over the past few years assumed total political control of the state.  Both houses of the state legislature are under the thumb of GOP super majorities and all statewide office holders are Republicans with the last Democratic governor having left office in January of 2017 and the last Democratic US Senator departing in January of 2019.  Six of eight of our US Congress creatures are Republican, a figure that has remained constant since the state lost its ninth congressional seat following the 2010 census.

Missouri's two Democratic congressional seats are in the urban areas of Kansas City and St. Louis.  Last year when the Trump White House began formulating plans for stealing the 2026 midterm elections, one of their early strategies was to order several state legislatures to redraw their congressional district lines to eliminate a few Democratic representatives.  Missouri was one of the states targeted for those special redraws, with the aim being to bust up the Kansas City area and connect it with enough rural voters in various directions to eliminate the city's longterm Democratic (and black) congressman.

The state's Republican controlled legislature dutifully followed the orders of the Trump administration and cranked out new maps that axed the Kansas City congressman.   But Missourians are a proud and independent people, many of whom don't like being told what to do by prissy dilettantes who spend their days - and nights - swilling cocktails with lobbyists and other hookers in Washington, DC.

A citizens' effort was quickly generated to circulate petitions calling for a return to the old maps, and those petitions were signed by well over enough voters to force a referendum to happen.  But state officials, and particularly Missouri's secretary of state, sat on those petitions and didn't take action to hold a timely referendum. Meanwhile the petition-passers went to court to force the use of the old maps until the matter of the petitions and a referendum were resolved and acted upon.  A state judge ruled in favor of the new maps, and the August primary election was held using those.

But after the primary election, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the referendum on which sets of maps would be offical would go forward on the November midterm electiton - and the congressional races would be held in November based on the old maps.  Missouri appealed that decision and a federal judge issued a decision that since the primary election had been held using the new maps, they would need to be used for the midterm in November to avoid voter confusion.  Missouri's secretary of state told state election officials (county clerks) to go with the decision of the federal judge, and the Missouri Supreme Court began contempt proceedings against the secretary of state.  Then the US Supreme Court got involved and issued an unsigned order for the elections in November to proceed using the old maps - and the referendum itself would also be on that ballot.

That is where the Trump-induced drama stands as of today.

Donald Trump is pissed because he won't be able to steal that Kansas City congressional seat - thanks to the US Supreme Court having had the final say in the matter - and that is supposed to be HIS Supreme Court!

The loyalty of SOME people!

Coincidentally, the new St Louis University/YouGov poll, a reputable survey resource, was released this week which shows Donald Trump is underwater with Missouri voters for the first time during this term with him having lost 19 points on his approval rating since inauguration day in 2025 - and 14 points since February of this year - the start of his war on Iran.   52% of Missourians disapprove of the job Trump is doing as President

The same poll had even worse results for Missouri's Republican governor, Mike Kehoe.  In February of this year Kehoe had an approval rating of 50% with 14% of Missourians "strongly" approving of his job performance, but as of last week those numbers had dropped precipitously.  Kehoe's pproval rating among Missourians is now just 39% and only 7% of Missourians "strongly" approve of the job he is doing as governor.  That poll showed 49% of Missourians disapprove of the job Mike Kehoe is doing as our governor.

Are Missourians finally beginning to tire of being a one-party state?  The political worm is turning in the show-me state - and Missourians have Governor Mike Kehoe, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, Attorney General Catharine Hanaway, and especially blowhard buttinski Donald John Trump to thank for that.  Maybe we will soon have a two-party system again!