A filing in one of the many lawsuits challenging Missouri’s gerrymandered redistricting plan appears to cast uncertainty on Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s statements that the map was prepared by staff in his office.
A lawsuit filed by the committee seeking to force a referendum on the map states: “Governor Kehoe prepared and provided to the General Assembly the new congressional districts and accompanying map.”
In an answer filed Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office wrote: “State Defendant admits that various governmental actors participated in the State’s 2025 congressional reapportionment. To the extent further response is required, State Defendant denies the allegations…”
The lawsuit was filed by a political action committee called People not Politicians against Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins after he rejected three proposed referendum petitions because they were filed before Kehoe signed the bill. The answer also denies that Hoskins made any error and asserts that People not Politicians filed suit in the wrong court and against the wrong defendant.
Missouri Democrats have publicly questioned the governor’s public statements that his office crafted the new map, arguing instead that it most likely came from President Donald Trump’s White House.
The phrasing used by the state’s attorneys is revealing, state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City, said in an interview with The Independent.
“I am not surprised at all to see the attorney general use this language,” she said. “Obviously now we are entering the court of law and facts matter.”
All along, Nurrenbern said, she has been convinced “this map was just a copy and paste from Washington, D.C.”
Discovering the map’s author has been frustrating, she said, and it was never adequately answered during the special session. Lawmakers were not fully trained on mapping software, she said, and no map was produced by legislative staff.
“The day that the governor called the extraordinary session, the map was already done,” Nurrenbern said, “and so that’s why I could say with absolute certainty that this map was not drawn in the state.”
Throughout the special session and after, Kehoe’s office has been adamant that it was done by the governor’s staff without assistance from Washington.
Chuck Hatfield, an attorney representing People Not Politicians in its lawsuit, said he was surprised by the state’s response. It could mean, he said, that Kehoe didn’t personally make the map. But he said “various governmental actors” is certainly broad enough to include federal employees at the White House.
“Why are people embarrassed about taking credit for this bill?” Hatfield said.
Hanaway’s office did not respond immediately to requests for clarification. A spokeswoman for the governor’s office said Tuesday that the original filing “does not specifically say ‘Governor Kehoe’s office’” prepared and provided the map.
On Wednesday morning, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green set the case for a trial on Nov. 4. Green is being asked to decide whether a referendum can be launched as soon as lawmakers take the final vote on a bill or if petitioners must wait until a bill is signed.
In a news release Wednesday, Hoskins said he had approved a new version of the referendum petition and that signature gathering could begin. Any signatures already gathered, Hoskins said, are not valid and gathering them before his approval of the petition form is a misdemeanor.
People Not Politicians said last week that it had collected more than 50,000 signatures from registered voters. The campaign needs at least 106,384 signatures spread over six of the state’s eight congressional districts to put it on a ballot.
The referendum campaign has until Dec. 11 to turn in signatures.
Nurrenbern said she has personally been collecting signatures to put the new map on the ballot next year. She sees Hoskins’ warning about signatures gathered before his approval as a personal threat that she may be prosecuted.
“It is incredibly frustrating that we have a secretary of state using the office to intimidate voters and threaten democracy,” Nurrenbern said.
The new Missouri map targets the Kansas-City based 5th District, held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, with the goal of winning seven of Missouri’s congressional seats for the GOP.
Lawmakers approved the new map after Trump started pressuring Misouri Republicans in July to redraw the districts. A special session in Texas was preparing to revise that state’s 34 districts to provide as many as five new safe GOP districts. In retaliation, California lawmakers put a new district map on that state’s ballot with the aim to shift five seats to Democrats.
In a lawsuit currently underway in Texas, Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, testified Oct. 7 that he prepared the map passed by the Texas legislature.
According to records obtained by The Independent, Kincaid produced a memo used by the map’s legislative sponsor in Missouri explaining the details of the new districts. In a September interview with The Independent, he insisted that is not evidence that he had a hand in creating the map.
In an interview Tuesday, Kincaid said he would not discuss whether he had a role in the Missouri map.
“I am going to defer to the governor’s office and the AG’s office on that,” he said.
Along with the lawsuit over referendum rules, there are four other lawsuits in various stages where opponents of the new map seek to have it declared unconstitutional. One, filed by the NAACP of Missouri, argues Kehoe had no authority to call lawmakers into special session and have all actions of the special session declared void.
The case was argued Sept. 15 before Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh, who has yet to make a ruling.
There is one other case in Cole County that directly challenges the redistricting plan and two more filed in Jackson County.
The Cole County case is set for a trial on Nov. 12, also before Limbaugh. In the lawsuit, which also has Hatfield as the lead attorney, the plaintiffs argue the Missouri Constitution only allows redistricting to occur immediately after the state receives a new census report.
“All we’ve got to do is look at the Constitution, take a look and see whether they can do redistricting,” Hatfield said. “The answer to that is no, they can’t do it at all.”
The Jackson County cases are not scheduled for trial. One includes accusations that the map approved by lawmakers is flawed and therefore not valid because it uses the same precinct in two different districts.
The other, filed the day Kehoe signed the bill, includes the argument that no authority exists in the Constitution allowing lawmakers to revise congressional districts in the absence of new census data. It also argues that the districts are not legal because they are not compact and stretch for hundreds of miles across the state.
Hatfield said he would like clarification on the statement denying Kehoe prepared the map as well as other statements in the answer that deny statements of fact, such as that the legislature passed the redistricting bill.
“It’s them being difficult,” Hatfield said, “but it’s just lawyer games.”
