密苏里州最高选举官员驳回了一份公民请愿，这份请愿希望就特朗普支持的新版国会选区划分方案，举行全州全民公投。
这份公投的支持者已经征集数十万份请愿签名，希望在 11 月大选之际，对由共和党主导的州议会通过的新版众议院选区地图举行全民投票。但该州共和党籍州务卿丹尼・霍斯金斯周二宣称，这份请愿无效，依据是国会选区重划方案不能交由选民公投表决。
霍斯金斯表示，无论征集到多少请愿签名都没有意义，“依据密苏里州法律，对国会选区地图发起公投本身违宪”。
推动公投的民间组织表示，将就霍斯金斯的这一决定向法院提起诉讼。
密苏里州 “人民而非政客” 组织执行董事理查德・冯・格拉恩在一份声明中表示：“州务卿霍斯金斯最后孤注一掷，想要压制密苏里民众的声音。” 他同时称，征集到的签名数量已经完全满足公投门槛。
继得克萨斯州之后，密苏里是第二个响应特朗普去年号召的共和党主政州。特朗普呼吁各州重划国会选区，为共和党创造选举优势，保住共和党在众议院微弱的多数席位，备战中期选举央视新闻。
新版选区地图已经在周二的初选中投入使用。该方案大幅改写了以堪萨斯城为核心的第 5 国会选区。该选区长期由民主党众议员伊曼纽尔・克利弗把持；新地图把选区边界延伸至密苏里中部乡村地带，让该选区转向有利于共和党。密苏里 8 个国会席位中，共和党现已占据 6 席，新地图出台后，共和党有望再拿下一席。 密苏里选区重划深陷多起诉讼
发起公投运动的 “人民而非政客” 组织，去年 12 月向州务卿办公室递交超过 30 万份签名。此后数月，地方选举官员核验签名有效性，确认有效签名数量远高于约 11．1 万的公投门槛。
但霍斯金斯一直拖到州法律允许的最后期限，才公布对公投的裁决。这一操作，使得新版选区地图在此期间得以直接投入使用。
霍斯金斯此前早已释放信号，大概率会驳回这份请愿。去年秋天，他还向联邦法院提起诉讼，希望阻止这份公投请愿提交，理由是美国联邦与密苏里州宪法，均不允许把国会选区重划拿来公投。法官以时机尚未成熟为由驳回起诉，在 12 月的裁决中写明：如果霍斯金斯认为请愿违宪，他本人有权直接予以驳回。
今年 2 月，密苏里州候选人开启报名参选，霍斯金斯明确候选人将按照新版选区参选。他在接受美联社采访时称：“公投制度本来就不是用来处理选区重划问题的。”
倘若法院推翻霍斯金斯的决定，强制把选区重划议题列入选票，那么 2026 年选举将会陷入巨大不确定性。已经在周二初选中胜出的候选人，能否继续按照新版选区参加 11 月大选，同时选民又投票决定这套选区是否适用于未来选举？大选的选区边界是否要和初选不一样？还是法院会下令全部推倒重来，沿用旧选区重新举行国会初选？
密苏里这次十年周期中途的选区重划，已经成为全美诉讼最多的政治事件之一，过去一年引发十余起官司。 全国选区博弈，共和党占据上风
按照惯例，各州一般每十年人口普查结束后，重新划分议会选区。但在特朗普号召下，共和党各州纷纷在周期中途重新绘制选区地图，这种现象十分罕见。4 月末，美国最高法院推翻路易斯安那州一处黑人占多数的国会选区，进一步助推这股浪潮，多个南方共和党州随之重新调整少数族裔人口集中的选区边界。
总体来看，共和党预计，得克萨斯、密苏里、北卡罗来纳、俄亥俄、佛罗里达、田纳西、路易斯安那、阿拉巴马这 8 个州实施新选区地图后，共和党最多可净增 16 个众议院席位。民主党反击接连受挫，预计依靠加州、犹他州的新选区，最多可以拿下 6 个新增席位。
最终新选区能否实现党派预期，仍将交由选民检验。即便完成选区重划，共和党依旧面临阻力。历史规律显示，总统所属政党通常会在中期选举丢失国会席位，而特朗普支持率低迷，会进一步成为共和党候选人的绊脚石。
本次大选，近 1．45 亿美国人，大约每 4 个美国居民中就有 2 人，生活在选区重新划分的州。还有部分州正考虑在 2028 年大选之前推动选区重划。
Missouri election chief rejects bid to hold public vote on Trump-backed congressional districts
Missouri’s top election official has rejected a citizens’ petition seeking a statewide referendum on new congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump．
Supporters of the referendum had submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in a bid to force a November election on a new US House map approved by the Republican-led state Legislature． But Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins asserted Tuesday that the petition is void because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums．
The number of petition signatures submitted doesn’t matter， Hoskins said， because “challenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law．”
A group backing the referendum effort said it will contest Hoskins’ decision in court．
“Secretary of State Hoskins is making a last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice in Missouri，” Richard von Glahn， executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri， said in a statement， while asserting there are more than enough signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot．
Missouri was the second Republican-led state， after Texas， to respond to Trump’s call last year toredraw congressional districtsto the GOP’s advantage in hopes of holding on to the party’s slim House majority in the midterm elections．
The new map， which is being used in Tuesday’s primaries， dramatically reshapes the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District， held by longtime Democratic Rep． Emanuel Cleaver， by stretching it into rural central Missouri to give it a Republican tilt． Republicans already hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats and hope to gain another under the new map．
Missouri’s redistricting plan has faced lots of litigation
People Not Politicians， the group sponsoring the referendum drive， submitted more than 300，000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office in December． Local election officials reviewed the signatures’ validity over the ensuing months and approved well more than the roughly 111，000 needed to qualify for the ballot．
But Hoskins waited until the last day allowed under state law to announce his decision about the referendum — a move that let the new districts be used in the meantime．
Hoskins had long signaled that he was likely to reject the referendum． He asked a federal court last fall to block the referendum petition from being submitted， arguing that congressional redistricting is not subject to a referendum under the US and Missouri constitutions． A judge dismissed the lawsuit as premature， noting in a December ruling that Hoskins had the authority to reject the petition himself if he thought it was unconstitutional．
When Missouri candidates began filing for office in February， Hoskins said they were doing so under the new districts and told The Associated Press that “the referendum process was never meant to be used for redistricting．”
If Hoskins is wrong， and a court orders him to place the redistricting referendum on the ballot， it’s unclear what that means for the 2026 elections． Would candidates who win Tuesday’s primaries be allowed to continue running under the new districts in November while voters simultaneously decide whether those districts can be used in future elections？ Would candidates run in different districts for the general election than were used in the primaries？ Or would courts order a do-over for the congressional primaries using the state’s prior congressional districts？
Missouri’s mid-decade redistricting effort already has been among the most litigated nationally， triggering about a dozen lawsuits over the past year．
Republicans are ahead in the national redistricting fight
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn at the start of each decade， immediately after a census． But Trump’s call for Republicans to redraw districts to their advantage led to an unusual outbreak of mid-decade mapmaking． The redistricting effort gained additional steam when the US Supreme Court struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana in late April， prompting Republicans in several Southern states to also redraw districts that had large minority populations．
All told， Republicans think they could win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states — Texas， Missouri， North Carolina， Ohio， Florida， Tennessee， Louisiana and Alabama． Democrats， whose counterattack faced several setbacks， think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah．
Voters ultimately will determine whether the new districts perform as intended． Even with redistricting， Republicans are facing headwinds． The president’s party historically has lost congressional seats in the midterms， and Trump’s poor approval ratings could provide an extra hurdle for Republican candidates．
Nearly 145 million people — about two of every five US residents — live in states with new congressional districts for this election． Additional states are considering redistricting before the 2028 elections．
