Missouri is poised to conduct its November election under congressional districts adopted in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday again rejected a new map backed by President Donald Trump. Missouri’s chief election official then directed local authorities to use the 2022 U.S. House districts, as the state’s highest court had ordered.
The decision means the state could use different congressional districts in the November general election than it used in the August primary. That rare change could alter the candidate choices available to more than 1 million potential voters, or nearly one in four voters statewide, according to an Associated Press estimate.
Republican lawmakers approved the new map last year at Trump’s urging, hoping it could help their party win an additional seat in the pivotal midterm elections. Trump wanted the courts to permit use of that map, but no Supreme Court justices publicly dissented from Thursday’s brief order. The order did not explain the court’s legal reasoning, as is typical in emergency appeals. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier Thursday, Missouri’s highest court held a hearing on whether Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins should be held in contempt for failing to follow its orders to use the districts adopted after the last census. Hoskins had instead instructed local election authorities to use the Trump-backed map, citing a competing Tuesday order from a federal judge that barred him from using any other districts.
Missouri Supreme Court judges repeatedly pressed a state attorney representing Hoskins for the secretary to issue guidance Thursday directing authorities to use the 2022 map. The dispute, which has lasted nearly a year, produced competing court orders and confusion for voters as election officials approached the November vote.
“We’re in a precarious situation,” Chief Justice W. Brent Powell said.