Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is standing behind his actions — while vowing to fight on.
After the Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments in a high-stakes case over Missouri redistricting, he told reporters that his office would "comply with any court order given the parameters and the deadlines that we have."
Then on Friday, Hoskins said on "The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air" that he would comply with the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling to place a referendum targeting a 2025 redistricting plan on the November ballot and using a 2022 map for the November elections.
But the statewide official defended his decision to try and appeal the unanimous decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"There's a few other legal options out there that I was not aware of, and so we're just utilizing … our legal process, our judicial process that was afforded to [the Secretary of State's office]," Hoskins said.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Friday that Hoskins was wrong to block the redistricting referendum, adding that there's nothing in the Missouri Constitution prohibiting voters from weighing in on congressional redistricting plans. An organization called People Not Politicians gathered enough signatures to have a Nov. 3 vote on the plan aimed at ousting Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.
Because the Missouri Constitution explicitly states that any measure that is put up for a referendum is suspended, that means that a 2022 map with a safe seat for Cleaver will be in effect for the November elections. It's a huge win for national Democrats trying to push back against a Donald Trump-backed effort to redraw enough Republican-leaning seats to prevent the GOP from losing control of the U.S. House.
Hoskins tried, but failed, to get the Missouri Supreme Court to stay its ruling on Friday. That was a long shot, given how harshly the court criticized the GOP official for pushing off making a decision on the referendum until the last day.
In fact, Judge Ginger Gooch, who was appointed to the high court by Gov. Mike Parson, wrote in a scathing footnote that "the secretary devotes a significant portion of his briefing to discussing the confusion, expense, and practical difficulties that may result from not utilizing the congressional redistricting in [the 2025 map for the November 2026 election]. Besides being irrelevant to the secretary's sole basis for declaring the referendum petition insufficient, these arguments are particularly misplaced given the secretary's delay created the confusion, expense, and practical difficulties of which he complains."
Asked to respond to Gooch's words in her ruling, Hoskins said: "I followed every Missouri state law as well as the Missouri Constitution."
"I would disagree with Judge Gooch. She's never ran an election," Hoskins said. "If she has a problem with the deadline being August 4, then she should petition the legislative branch to change that deadline to May 1 or April 1 or something else. But to criticize me for meeting all constitutional deadlines and doing my job, I think is very ironic."
Hoskins pressured local elections officials to use the 2025 map for the primary elections. The Missouri Supreme Court decision did not address what should happen to the results of primaries that were conducted on a map that, as Gooch noted, never went into effect and was never law.
Asked why he thought the U.S. Supreme Court would be amenable to having Missouri use the 2025 map when it never actually went into effect, Hoskins cited a legal precedent known as the "Purcell Principle," which states that courts shouldn't change election rules too close to an election.
The Purcell Principle has not traditionally applied to state court decisions that change election laws. But Hoskins said that his point still stands.
"I think it's something that the U.S. Supreme Court should consider," Hoskins said.
Referendum leader pans Hoskins' move
Richard von Glahn is the executive director of People Not Politicians, the group that gathered the signatures to place the referendum on the ballot.
He said on Friday that Hoskins "has been trying to twist Missouri law in order to get a specific outcome that he, and I imagine his supporters in Washington D.C., want to have." But he added "that's not the way the law works."
"The responsibility for this lies at his feet, and now he's looking to deflect it and place it on somebody else or on a different process," von Glahn said. "And it's just his, and he should take responsibility for the mess he created."
While some Missouri Republicans expressed confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court would ultimately stay the Missouri Supreme Court's decision, von Glahn said that the court has consistently upheld the right to place congressional maps up for a referendum.
"I don't even think this case belongs in the U.S. Supreme Court because it is entirely about the Missouri Constitution and the Missouri laws that govern that," von Glahn said. "Part of the thing about federalism is that states have the right to conduct elections in the way that they see fit, and all we are doing is complying with the Missouri Constitution."
With the referendum on the November ballot as Proposition A, von Glahn said Missourians are ready to vote 'no' and officially repeal the 2025 redistricting map.
"It's quite simple. I think people should pick politicians. Politicians shouldn't pick people," von Glahn said. "A system in which politicians and their consultants and their lobbyists get together in a backroom deal and use fancy software to draw new lines in order to get the outcome that they want isn't about political accountability. It's not about political responsibility. It's about shielding themselves from voters."
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