Missouri legislators experienced something unusual during the final week of their 2026 session, which ended Friday: a relatively drama-free experience.
Instead of being mired in the rancor and discord of last year, Republicans and Democrats finished work on wide-ranging bills dealing with public safety, economic development and health care. The GOP caucus in the Senate never once considered cutting off debate – which it did repeatedly in 2025.
But just because the session ended without a fight doesn't mean there wasn't fierce disagreement over the last 4½ months. Here are some of the big takeaways from the session and how one thing that didn't happen could cast a shadow over 2027.
Threat of delays fizzled
At the tail end of the 2025 legislative session, Democratic Senate Leader Doug Beck of Affton promised that this year would not go smoothly.
Beck and the rest of his caucus were infuriated after Republicans used a process known as the previous question motion to cut off debate over a ballot item overturning a 2024 abortion rights amendment and voter-approved paid sick leave.
"The banner year that everybody had in this place?" said Beck, referring to the productivity of the 2025 session up until Republicans cut off debate. "That is over with."
Democrats followed through on that threat early in the session when they started filibustering gubernatorial appointments. But eventually, the two sides agreed to require 18 signatures on a previous question motion, which is not easy to get. After that point, lawmakers from both parties agree that things started to move more quickly.
2025 may have used up all the explosive issues
But perhaps another reason that 2026 just wasn't as contentious as 2025 is that lawmakers had fewer controversial things to consider.
Besides the abortion and paid sick leave items, legislators in 2025 approved measures redrawing the state's congressional lines at the behest of President Donald Trump, making it harder to pass certain constitutional amendments and providing incentives for sports stadiums.
With the exception of a ballot item expanding the state's sales tax to get rid of Missouri's income tax, 2026 didn't have a lot of proposals that engendered such widespread controversy. And since that proposal was passed fairly early in the session, that may explain why the last week was pretty tranquil.
The session still brought disagreements
Kehoe's plan to expand the state's sales taxes to get rid of Missouri's income tax even had a number of Republicans voting no – including lawmakers like Sen. Joe Nicola of Independence, who contended the legislature should have been dealing more with high property taxes. Property tax proposals failed to pass at the end of the session.
Democrats also blasted GOP budget writers for not fully funding the K-12 foundation formula.
And the House passed legislation that Democratic critics like House Minority Leader Ashley Aune of Kansas City said bans a scenario that's already illegal and never actually occurs in real life. Under the legislation, anyone who would kill or attempt to kill a fetus born alive after an abortion attempt could be prosecuted for first-degree murder.
"I'm sick of standing in this chamber listening to my colleagues bare their souls and relive their sexual and pregnancy and infertility traumas to try to explain to the men in this room, and the women who gleefully carry the water for the patriarchy in the name of Jesus, why women deserve access to life-saving health care," Aune said.
Voters will have their say
In some respects, whether the Republican-controlled legislature succeeded in all of its goals isn't known yet.
That's because priorities such as restricting abortion, curtailing initiative petition constitutional amendments and ending the income tax can't happen unless voters approve them later this year.
That may be a tall task, given that all three of those ideas will face well-funded opposition campaigns. They'll also be going before voters during a year that could be bad for Republicans, thanks to Trump's sagging approval ratings.
"We started out the 103rd General Assembly with Missouri First," said state Rep. Ray Reed, D-Maplewood, referring to a map aimed at ousting Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. "And now we're just 'Missouri Distracted' with a bunch of culture wars being thrown on statutes and on the ballot."
The supermajority era technically ended in the House
One of the underreported developments of the last couple of years is that the House hasn't functioned with an actual supermajority for some time.
That's because Kehoe never called special elections for a number of vacant House seats. And not having at least 109 seats came back to hurt Republicans last year when they couldn't get enough votes to make a new congressional map go into effect right away.
That also prevented Republicans from immediately following the lead of Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee in trying to eliminate the majority-minority 1st Congressional District.
Whether that supermajority returns won't be known until November. And while Democratic hopes of keeping Republicans below the supermajority line have been dashed in recent elections, a so-called "Blue Wave" might be enough to finally accomplish that goal.
The next chapter of Missouri redistricting
The last week of session featured momentous redistricting-related developments, including the Missouri Supreme Court stating that the submission of referendum signatures did not automatically suspend the congressional map aimed at ousting Cleaver.
There's still ongoing fallout from that decision. But Republicans are already looking forward to 2027, when they could try to transform the heavily Democratic St. Louis-area 1st Congressional District into one Republicans could win.
Some St. Louis Democrats are skeptical Republicans will actually follow through – especially since, by that point, Trump will be less than two years away from leaving office. And if Cleaver wins reelection under lines aimed at kicking him out of office, that might give Republicans pause before going after the 1st District.
"I think the phone calls will come in to try to redistrict it," said Rep. Marty Murray, D-St. Louis. "We've seen it happen state after state. It wouldn't surprise me if it did. But if they do, then obviously we'll fight against it."
Copyright 2026 St. Louis Public Radio
