Elections

The Missouri Republican Party is mulling over how national headwinds could affect key state legislative races and ballot initiatives, such as an abortion ban and redistricting referendum. Plus: Missouri colleges and universities are racing to fulfill a new request for student data from the U.S. Department of Education.

Missouri Republicans, acting at the urging of President Trump, redrew Cleaver's Kansas City-area district to make it harder for a Democrat to win. Despite uncertainties about which map will be upheld, Cleaver has filed to run for reelection.

Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican who is running for secretary of state, and Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, also want to require driver’s licenses to indicate citizenship status, in an effort to stamp out the already-rare instances of noncitizen voting.

Former state Sen. Bill Eigel has been criticized for receiving automatic contributions when he ran for governor and again when he launched his current bid for St. Charles County executive.

Some Republican election officials have broken with the president on nationalizing elections, even as they have avoided criticizing him directly. That includes Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, who also told lawmakers he wouldn’t provide the state’s full voter list to the feds without a court order.

After providing more than $100 million in free plays to lure customers, FanDuel and DraftKings, the sports books dominating the state market, paid no taxes.

The bill contains many provisions, including expanding the no-excuse absentee voting period.

The report uses Kansas and Arizona to illustrate the unforeseen financial costs of executing documentary proof of citizenship laws as they gain traction in Congress and statehouses nationwide.

In 1914, the Missouri Supreme Court held that once citizens submit signatures, the challenged law is automatically suspended until voters decide its fate.

Fred Sherman had served as Johnson County election commissioner since 2021. "I was given the option to resign or be terminated from the position, and I elected to resign," Sherman wrote on social media.

This week, petitioners challenging Missouri's gerrymandered new congressional map submitted 305,000 signatures seeking to halt the law and put it up for a statewide vote. That's more than twice as many as needed. But a whole tangle of legal challenges lay ahead.

The initiative petition would enshrine public education as "fundamental right" in the state constitution. But a ballot summary written by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is "insufficient and unfair," a Cole County judge ruled.