September 2025

Special Session  2026 Summary

Earlier this month Governor Kehoe called the legislature back in for a second “extraordinary session” to pass a new Congressional redistricting map ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections as well as a separate ballot measure intended to change the citizen-led initiative petition process. Both measures passed late last week. 

This marks the second time Governor Kehoe has been delivered a victory by his allied super majority Republican legislature. Both the Congressional map and initiative petition reform legislation started in the Missouri House of Representatives. As the legislation was being introduced, Democratic lawmakers protested that a quorum was not present, and therefore, in their opinion, the House should have been unable to conduct business. As a result, a few Democratic lawmakers in the House decided to perform a sit-in style protest, staying overnight in the House chamber seeking recognition for a motion from the Republican majority. In spite of the protest, the House majority muscled the legislation through the committee process and ultimately passed both measures easily on the House floor, advancing them to the Senate for their consideration. 

Once the legislation arrived at the Senate, it was also time for the annual Veto Session, which is required by the State Constitution. With a Republican Governor and super majorities in both legislative chambers, no vetoes by the Governor were overridden by the legislature, and the veto session was adjourned without any actions taken. Immediately following that session, the Senate convened to consider the House approved legislation on IP reform as well as the map. However, before those bills were considered, Senate Republicans successfully used a procedural maneuver, known as the previous question (PQ) to force a vote on adopting new rules that were designed to stifle opportunities for Democrats to filibuster the legislation. After that, both pieces of legislation were referred and heard in committee. During the committee process, it is noteworthy that Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D) from the 5^th District personally provided opposition testimony to the committee on the newly proposed congressional map. After hours of additional testimony, the legislation was advanced out of committee and turned in to the Senate floor for final debate. 

With the newly adopted Senate rules, the Republican majority was able to quickly bring up the Congressional redistricting bill. With a limited amount of debate, the Senate republicans invoked the previous question, a once rare move, and passed the proposed Congressional map and sent it to the Governor for his signature. Immediately following that vote, the initiative petition reform legislation was brought up, and for the first time in the history of the Missouri Senate, no opportunity for debate was allowed on a bill or resolution, as the resolution was immediately PQ’d by the Republican majority with 19 affirmative votes, as a result it was passed and transmitted to the Governor. 

There is much speculation on what the aftermath will be as a result of this extraordinary session. Some believe the next regular session (which starts in January) will be fraught of tension and acrimony as a result of recent proceedings in the State Senate. A number of legal challenges have already been filed related to the new congressional map. It will be worth monitoring those developments as well as any other fallout from this session. We will be there to keep an eye on things and always report back. As always feel free to reach out to our lobbying team here at MSMA at advocacy@msma.org.