Missouri

Missouri is the first state where voters will decide whether to repeal an existing constitutional right to abortion. The legislature passed the repeal 103-51 in the House and 21-11 in the Senate, eighteen months after 1.5 million Missourians voted to protect that right.

That repeal is on the November 3 ballot. The legislature also redrew congressional districts in 2025 after President Trump called for it, and voters rejected its proposed limits on citizen initiatives on August 4. Medicaid expansion, which voters approved in 2020, faces a funding shortfall.

---

The Legislature’s Repeal Measure on Amendment 3

Missouri voters added a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” to the state constitution in November 2024. The margin was 52%-48%. Eighteen months later, the legislature voted to put repeal on the November 2026 ballot.

HJR 73 bans abortion and also targets gender-affirming care for minors, including surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers. Rape and incest exceptions are limited to the first 12 weeks.

The ballot language itself became a fight. The Missouri Court of Appeals found the original summary did not tell voters that a “yes” vote would repeal the rights they had just passed. It called the summary’s promise to “guarantee” emergency care “misleading.” In December 2025, the court rewrote the summary to make the repeal clear.

Rep. Ed Lewis sponsored the repeal. House Minority Leader Ashley Aune said the voters’ will should come first. “If you think they made a mistake for supporting Amendment 3, how can you think that they didn’t make a mistake when they voted for you?”

---

Missouri’s Mid-Decade Congressional Map

President Trump urged Republican states to redraw congressional maps mid-decade. Governor Kehoe called a special session that convened September 3, 2025. He then signed a map that moves the 5th District from a safe Democratic seat to a Republican-leaning one, by the partisan lean of its new voters.

The new map splits Jackson County between three congressional districts. The dividing line between the 4th and 5th Districts is Troost Avenue, a street that has served as the line of racial segregation in Kansas City for a century.

300,000+ signatures submitted by “People Not Politicians” to force a referendum on the 2025 congressional map

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has held the 5th District since 2005. His redrawn district now stretches east to Osage County, far from its Kansas City base.

The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the map for the August primary on May 12, 2026, rejecting compactness challenges and ruling that signatures gathered before October 14 were contested. The referendum qualified: the map is on the November 3 ballot as Proposition A. On September 3, 2026, the Missouri Supreme Court kept the 2022 map for the November general election and left the new map to voters (PBS News). Federal courts then ordered the new map used, and on September 25 the U.S. Supreme Court stayed those orders, so the 2022 map stands for November (Supreme Court order).

---

Amendment 5 and the Income-to-Sales-Tax Swap

Voters rejected Amendment 5 on August 4, 2026, 83% to 17%. It would have phased out Missouri’s 4.7% income tax and given lawmakers five years to replace the revenue with expanded sales taxes. For those five years, the legislature could have bypassed the Hancock Amendment, which normally requires voter approval for significant tax increases.

The amendment passed the House 95-59. It does not define which services get taxed. Rent, healthcare, and car repairs could all become taxable.

Older adults and active duty military, whose income is largely exempt from state income tax, would face especially steep increases.

A lawsuit filed May 22, 2026 in Cole County argues lawmakers bundled too many subjects into one proposal. The Missouri Budget Project titled its analysis “Ill-Conceived Tax Proposals Would Increase Taxes for Most Missourians, Damage Communities & Economy.”

---

Amendment 4’s Limits on Citizen Initiatives

Voters also rejected Amendment 4 on August 4, 80% to 20%. It would have required citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to win a majority in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts instead of a statewide majority.

Ballotpedia analyzed every Missouri ballot initiative since 2020 under the proposed rule. Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, and abortion rights all would have failed.

The amendment also would have banned foreign nationals from contributing to ballot measure campaigns and made petition signature fraud a crime.

---

Medicaid Expansion Is Hitting a Funding Cliff

Missouri voters approved Medicaid expansion in 2020. The state received $968 million in temporary federal funding to cover its share. As of September 30, 2025, the reserve balance was $532.2 million. It could be exhausted by late 2026.

For the first time since voters approved expansion, Missouri’s general revenue fund is being tapped to pay for it.

$17 billion projected federal Medicaid funding loss over the next decade

Federal law will require Medicaid enrollees ages 19-64 to verify 80 hours per month of work or school by January 1, 2027. An estimated 90,000 Missourians are projected to lose coverage from this requirement alone. Over the next decade, approximately 130,000 people are projected to lose coverage total.

The legislature is letting expansion run out of money while moving to put work requirements in the state Constitution. That would make them harder to roll back through future ballot initiatives.

---

Missouri’s 2026 Ballot Measures

Missouri voters decided four measures on August 4 and face five more on November 3, per Ballotpedia.

Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s former attorney general, resigned in September 2025 to become FBI co-deputy director. As AG, Bailey opposed abortion rights even after voters approved Amendment 3.

---

What You Can Do in Missouri

1. Check your voter registration. The registration deadline for November 3 is October 7. Verify your status at sos.mo.gov/elections.

2. Know what is on your ballot. Five measures are on the November 3 ballot. Read the full text of each measure before you vote. The Secretary of State is required to provide the complete language.

3. Vote on Amendment 3 and Proposition A. The abortion repeal and the congressional map are both decided on November 3.

4. Read Proposition A before you vote. Read how a yes or no vote affects the 2025 congressional map in the Secretary of State’s ballot language. The “People Not Politicians” campaign gathered the signatures that put it on the ballot.

5. Call the governor’s office. 573-751-3222. Ask why the legislature is overriding voter-approved Medicaid expansion, voter-approved abortion rights, and the citizen initiative process all in the same year.