Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Missouri News Network: Statehouse News for MPA Members
This report is written by Missouri School of Journalism students for publication by MPA member newspapers in print and online.
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Missouri News Network this week looks at the general election results.
If you have thoughts or questions, contact Fred Anklam at anklamf@missouri.edu.
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THURSDAY
Missouri Democrats prevail in key races
By Jae Jepsen and Hudson Kuechler, Missouri News Network
Missouri Democrats joined a national trend of impressive gains on Tuesday, including wins in the House of Representatives, a pickup of a congressional seat and progressive votes on multiple ballot initiatives.
Nationally, Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress, while in Missouri, the party gained its largest number of Missouri General Assembly seats in two decades.
Gov. Mike Kehoe posted a statement on Facebook on Wednesday reacting to his party’s losses.
“Last night’s results here in Missouri and across the nation deserve thoughtful reflection and honest conversations on where we go from here,” the statement said.
He also shared his plans for responding to the results.
“Today, I’m in the office taking meetings and continuing to work with my team on conservative, common sense solutions on behalf of every Missourian,” Kehoe said. “Tomorrow I will do the same. Across our state and nation, the work continues—together.”
Kehoe was personally active in seeking to have the state’s congressional map redrawn to add another Republican-leaning seat, and his wife led the main lobbying group backing the Amendment 3 effort to restrict abortion rights. Both were defeated.
“This is a pretty classic story that we see in political science, where when you have an incumbent president, there’s almost always a backlash against them in the midterms,” said Scott LaCombe, assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri.
“What was so unique about 2026 that we really haven’t seen in previous cycles is that Trump has such a strong influence in the Republican Party. These candidates either didn’t want to or felt like they couldn’t distance themselves from the president, or they tied themselves very closely,” LaCombe said.
“When people were going into the voting booth on Election Day, they were thinking about Trump first and foremost,” he added.
U.S. House victory
In Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, Democrat Fred Wellman defeated Republican incumbent Ann Wagner by nearly five percentage points, ousting her after 13 years in office. In 2024, Wagner defeated her opponent by 12 percentage points. The last time the district went Democratic was in the 1990 general election.
LaCombe says that Wellman’s victory follows a national trend of suburban voters shifting to the left.
“I think it’s a shift of suburban voters. So in Trump’s first term, we saw nationally suburban voters really start to shift to the left,” he said.
Wellman’s victory comes after Missouri Republicans attempted to redistrict the state to ensure a 7-1 Republican majority. The state voted against that map, labeled as Proposition A on the ballot, with 61.8% of the vote.
The gerrymandered map would have favored state Sen. Rick Brattin in the 5th District over incumbent U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Brattin received 28.1% of the vote to Cleaver’s 69.5% Tuesday where the 2022 congressional map was used by order of the state Supreme Court.
“In the future, I hope that the people of Missouri will be served by a Congressional map like the Missouri First map that better represents our state,” Brattin said in a statement. “The 5th District deserves a Congressman who will fight for them.”
Missouri House and Senate
Sixteen seats flipped from Republican to Democrat in the Missouri House of Representatives, breaking the two-thirds supermajority and marking their biggest gain since 1974. When the House reconvenes, Republicans will sit at 95 seats to Democrats’ 68.
No Democrat incumbent lost a seat on Tuesday in the Missouri House, while 10 GOP incumbents did.
“The voters demanded change, and House Democrats will work to deliver it. Republicans who ignore this message do so at their own electoral peril,” House Democratic Leader Ashley Aune of Kansas City said in a statement.
Will of the People, a group dedicated to replacing lawmakers who overturn voter-approved measures, worked with campaigns across the state in the lead-up to the election.
“The politicians in Jefferson City have tried to ignore us, divide us, and silence us,” Will of the People spokesperson Caitlyn Adams said. “But tonight we proved that when we stand together, we can and will elect leaders who respect the will of the people and put the needs of working families first.”
In the Missouri Senate, two seats flipped, with Rep. Keri Ingle beating House Speaker Jon Patterson for the 8th District seat and Rep. Betsy Fogle winning the 30th District seat. In both races, Democrats beat state representatives attempting to move to the Senate.
Amendment 6
Amendment 6 passed with 60% of the vote, placing higher restrictions on repeals of citizen-led initiatives.
“The overwhelming approval of Amendment 6 is a testament to those in Missouri who are tired of having their voices ignored or their votes overturned, and demanded that we restore voters as the final check and balance on the politicians we elect,” Yes on 6 spokesperson Jack Cardetti said.
Kara Corches, Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry president and CEO, expressed her disappointment in the amendment’s passing in a statement Wednesday. She said the chamber is considering how this change will impact its work.
“In the coming weeks, the Missouri Chamber will carefully evaluate what Amendment 6 means for the legislative process and our work fighting for Missouri employers,” Corches said. “We know it will be much more difficult to address unintended consequences of voter-approved measures through the legislative process, and we anticipate more legal disputes over legislation.”
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Amendment 3 was defeated. What's happening next?
By Hailey Sanford and Anika Austvold, Missouri News Network
Missourians decided to protect abortion rights in the state on Tuesday. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the issue.
Republican legislators brought the abortion issue back to the ballot just two years after a citizen-led initiative to instill reproductive health rights in the state constitution passed 51.6% to 48.4%
But Amendment 3 failed on Tuesday, 55.5% to 44.5%. It would have banned abortion except in cases of rape and incest up to 12 weeks. Care would have been ensured for ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, life of the mother and fetal anomalies.
The amendment also would have enshrined an existing ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the state constitution.
Instead, Missourians voted to keep all the protections from the 2024 amendment in place.
Mallory Schwartz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said there are six clinics currently providing abortions across Missouri, including one in Columbia.
“We protected the patients who don’t have to cancel their appointments, who can count on being able to get care in their community,” Schwartz said.
Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, who created the amendment, said he was disappointed but not surprised with the results.
“Not enough Republicans came out voting,” Lewis said. “Democrats did, and they were motivated. And they got what they wanted; they’re still the party of killing innocent children.”
Gov. Mike Kehoe also expressed disappointment in the result for himself and his First Lady, Claudia Kehoe, treasurer of Her Health, Her Future, the organization backing the amendment. He pledged to continue the fight against abortion.
“As a father, grandfather and pro-life governor, I will continue to advocate for policies that support women, affirm the dignity and value of every life and protect children from irreversible gender transition intervention,” Kehoe said.
The “no” votes were split across the board. Some people voted no because they want access to abortion; others voted no because they thought the ban would not have gone far enough, and some voted no because they had already voted on abortion in 2024.
“Personally, I voted no on it because I believe that women’s reproductive healthcare should be protected, as all healthcare should be protected, and that should not have been the government’s job,” said Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia.
For Schwartz and her organization, the results were cause for celebration.
“My initial reaction was just gratitude and excitement,” Schwartz said. “Gratitude for the Missourians that made this campaign and this incredible victory possible.”
Schwartz said she believes voters’ frustration with lawmakers played a role in the outcome.
“I think that people were mad that they had to do it again,” Schwartz said. “I think that they felt that politicians were trying to overturn their vote and ignore what they demanded in ‘24, and disrespect their voice and their vote.”
Amendment 6, also on the ballot Tuesday, was approved by voters and will limit future actions by legislators to undo laws passed by voters.
In 2024, 2,981,681 people voted on Amendment 3. Tuesday, 2,114,237 people voted on the amendment. This is a difference of 867,444 people, likely due to the fact that 2024 was a presidential election year, which traditionally draws more voter participation.
Results showed that Saline, Greene, Jefferson and Cass counties changed from voting against abortion rights in 2024 to voting for abortion rights on Tuesday.
Statewide, 48.17% of registered voters cast ballots on Amendment 3 on Tuesday. In 2024, 67.26% of registered voters cast a ballot on the Amendment 3 protecting abortion rights.
Lewis said that the amendment would have been more likely to pass “if it had been on a, you know, not on a midterm where there was a blue wave.”
Her Health, Her Future, the campaign supporting Amendment 3, also pointed to the political environment and spending by opponents as factors in the defeat.
“Tonight is a loss for women, a loss for children and a loss for life,” campaign manager James Lawson said in a statement Tuesday. “The left poured tens of millions of dollars from out-of-state extreme leftists to defeat this amendment, and Missouri women and children will continue to suffer the consequences.”
The campaign claimed that more than $30 million in out-of-state spending went toward defeating the amendment. Despite the loss, Lawson said the campaign will continue advocating for restrictions on abortion.
“This campaign built a coalition of doctors, pastors, parents, and volunteers in every corner of this state, and that coalition is not going anywhere,” said Her Health, Her Future’s statement.
Missouri Right to Life’s State Political Action Committee also expressed disappointment in the results but said it would continue working with lawmakers on abortion policy.
“We will continue to educate the public on the dangers of Article I, Section 36 of the Missouri Constitution,” the committee said in a news release Wednesday. “We will also continue working with the Legislature to protect the innocent preborn persons in our state.”
Despite this pledge for continued efforts, Schwartz said Tuesday’s results reflect the work of abortion-rights organizers and volunteers who spent months campaigning across Missouri.
“I think it means everything for those folks that knocked doors and made calls and talked to their neighbors,” Schwartz said.
The results leave questions about how Republican lawmakers might approach abortion policy in the next legislative session.
Schwartz said the reproductive health protections in Missouri’s Constitution could prevent lawmakers from using some tactics they have pursued in the past, including additional licensing requirements and inspections for abortion providers.
“We are under no illusion that this work is over,” Schwartz said. “But we have an incredible movement for abortion rights and bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom in our state.”
The passage of Amendment 6 could also change how lawmakers approach future abortion legislation.
With Amendment 6, 80% of both chambers of the state legislature would have to approve altering a citizen-led amendment.
Lewis said the new requirement makes another legislature-led attempt to restrict abortion unlikely in the near future.
“I don’t see another amendment in the near future. I, you know, I don’t see how it’ll work,” Lewis said. “That was the most moderate proposal that could be put on the ballot that would pass.”
Steinhoff is more skeptical of the Republican agenda.
“The original Amendment 3 is going to stand in the Constitution, so it would be hard for them to override it a lot,” Steinhoff said, “but there’s always creative nuances, and we will just have to see what they’re willing to do.”
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TUESDAY
Missourians reject Amendment 3, preserve abortion rights
By Hailey Sanford, Missouri News Network
Missouri residents voted overwhelmingly to maintain protections for reproductive healthcare on Tuesday.
All protections put in place by 2024’s Amendment 3 remain in place, “including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care and respectful birthing conditions.”
“In 2024, Missourians made history by becoming the first state in the nation to defeat an abortion ban at the ballot box, and tonight we made history again with more than a million Missourians voting to defend that victory from politicians who tried to take our power away,” said Luz María Henríquez, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri.
Amendment 3 was a legislative effort intended to ban access to abortion care for the first 12 weeks of gestation except in the case of rape or incest.
The amendment promised care for ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, the life of the mother and fetal anomalies throughout the pregnancy. The fetal anomaly provision only referred to cases where the fetus would not survive outside of the womb.
Amendment 3 was defeated by 55.3% of Missourians, a higher percentage than the 51.6% who backed enshrining reproductive rights in the Missouri Constitution in 2024. All the numbers are unofficial results.
This decision comes following a contentious history of access to abortion in the state.
After the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision to return the right to abortion to the states, Missouri enacted a trigger ban on abortion previously passed by the legislature.
The trigger ban placed a near-total ban on abortion in the state, with criminal and civil consequences for providing or receiving an abortion.
A citizen-led initiative in 2024 restored the right to reproductive healthcare in the state. It was decided by a 51.6% to 48.4% vote.
Republican legislators Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, and Sen. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles, led initiatives in both chambers to get abortion back on the ballot this fall.
They included an additional provision intended to enshrine an existing state ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the Missouri Constitution, including access to puberty blockers, hormone drugs and sex change surgeries. That provision was seen as an effort to attract more votes for the potential abortion ban.
In 2023, the Missouri General Assembly passed a law banning transgender care for minors; however, it is set to expire in August 2027 unless the legislature removes the sunset date. Legislators are expected to be voting on these provisions in 2027.
Most of the advertising in favor of Amendment 3 focused on the gender-affirming care issue.
“We’ve said it before, voters said it again tonight, and we’ll continue fighting until we are heard fully: Missourians do not want politicians interfering with our health care decisions,” said Margot Riphagen-Dunn, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action. “Not with our abortions. Not with our gender-affirming care. Never with our bodies, our families or our futures.”
Looking forward
All protections that were put in place in 2024 remain intact.
Lewis anticipates future legislation on abortion in the state. He said that either citizens or lawmakers will almost certainly continue the fight.
Anti-abortion activists were devastated by the loss and signaled intentions to carry on the fight. Some opposed to abortion were reluctant to support the amendment because it did not totally ban the procedure.
Voters reject new congressional map, strengthen voter power
By Jordan Davis and Emily Skidmore, Missouri News Network
Missouri voters elected Tuesday to deny a Republican-friendly congressional map and to strengthen protections for voter-approved laws.
The map referendum — known as Proposition A — saw roughly 62% vote “no,” while the voter protections — known as Amendment 6 — saw approximately 60% vote “yes.”
Prop A
Voters defeated Prop A in Tuesday’s election, meaning Missouri will continue to use the congressional map approved in 2022.
The referendum was prompted by Missouri Republicans, who in 2025 redrew the state’s congressional maps in an attempt to gerrymander a Kansas City-area seat out of Democratic control.
Tuesday’s vote came after back-and-forth from state and federal court rulings, which left uncertainty about whether Prop A would appear in front of voters until relatively late in election season.
Proposition A was put on the ballot through an initiative petition from activist group People Not Politicians, which gathered over 300,000 signatures. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins then attempted to block the referendum and preserve the use of the 2025 map, a move that was reversed by the Missouri Supreme Court in September. This allowed the ballot measure to be voted on by Missouri residents rather than having Missouri legislators decide which map would be used.
People Not Politicians Executive Director Richard Von Glahn spoke Tuesday night in a social media post, two hours before the Prop A election was called.
“(Prop A is) about a much larger question, about who democracy needs to focus on and who it belongs to,” Von Glahn said. “And the answer is us.”
Had the 2025 map been approved, Kansas City’s 5th District was set to be redrawn to include a dozen deep-red counties. This would have jeopardized Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s odds for reelection if he chose to run again in 2028.
Prior to the election, several Republican lawmakers voiced support for another redistricting attempt in advance of the 2028 election. It is unclear whether or not those rumblings could gain steam in Missouri’s upcoming legislative session.
Republicans initially set out to make a map the favored the GOP in seven of the state's eight congressional districts. By the end of the night Tuesday, Democrats had swung the balance to 5-3 — Democrat Fred Wellman defeated incumbent Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican, in suburban St. Louis's 2nd District.
Amendment 6
Missouri voters approved Amendment 6 on Tuesday to place in the state’s constitution higher restrictions on repeals of citizen-led initiatives.
The amendment establishes a higher threshold for legislators to overturn voter-approved laws by requiring an 80% vote in both chambers of the legislature and a statewide vote of the people to change or undo any law that is passed through the initiative process.
Additionally, the amendment requires that ballot summaries, summary statements and fiscal notes have clear and easily understandable language.
The amendment will maintain the current signature requirements and voting threshold for citizen-initiated petitions.
Under current Missouri law, the Missouri General Assembly needs just a simple majority to initiate the repeal of a constitutional amendment approved by voters.
With the passage of Amendment 6, Missouri’s protections on voter-approved laws are some of the strongest in the country.
The passage of this amendment comes after attempted repeals of citizen-led initiatives by legislators, with the two most recent examples including reversals of both abortion and paid sick leave in May 2025.
Respect MO Voters, the main group in support of Amendment 6’s passage, celebrated the result in a news release Tuesday night.
“Missourians from every corner of this beloved state said the time for these political games is over and the time for holding politicians accountable and protecting our constitutional rights are here to stay,” Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the Yes on 6 campaign, said in the release.
In August, Hoskins attempted to prevent the proposed amendment from going on the ballot due to claims of it having more than one subject.
Respect MO Voters sued Hoskins for the decision, making way for the Missouri Supreme Court to reverse the decision and place Amendment 6 in front of voters.
The next legislative session, set to begin in January, will determine the impact that Amendment 6 will have on the state’s legislature. Several Republican officials have suggested creating more restrictions on other aspects of the petition process in response.
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Fitzpatrick wins second term as state auditor
By Anika Austvold, Missouri News Network
Republican Scott Fitzpatrick survived the statewide blue wave to claim reelection as Missouri state auditor Tuesday, securing a second four-year term and maintaining his party’s control of every statewide-elected office.
Fitzpatrick defeated Democratic challenger Quentin Wilson in Missouri’s only statewide race on the November ballot.
With 94% of votes counted, Fitzpatrick held a 5% lead over Wilson, totaling approximately 1.05 million votes to Wilson’s approximate 950,000, according to the The Associated Press.
This margin of victory was much closer than in 2022, when Fitzpatrick defeated Democrat Alan Green by 21.8%.
Fitzpatrick’s victory keeps the auditor’s office under Republican control, a position the party has held since he succeeded Democrat Nicole Galloway in January 2023.
Galloway was the last Democrat to win a statewide election in Missouri, securing reelection as auditor in 2018.
Fitzpatrick, who previously served as Missouri’s state treasurer and chaired the Missouri House Budget Committee, first won the auditor’s office in 2022.
During his first term, Fitzpatrick focused on improving operations within the auditor’s office and expanding audits of school districts and local governments.
He pointed to his office’s examination of Jackson County’s property-tax-assessment process and a Medicaid audit that identified about 10,000 duplicate enrollments as examples of its work.
Throughout his reelection campaign, Fitzpatrick said he wanted to shift more attention toward statewide programs, examining how they could operate more efficiently and identifying programs that may no longer serve a purpose.
His second term comes as Missouri faces projected budget shortfalls.
A June report from Fitzpatrick’s office projected the state would spend more than $1.7 billion above general revenue collections in fiscal year 2027. The report also projected the state’s General Revenue Fund would be exhausted early in fiscal year 2028 if those projections hold.
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Amendment 8 nears approval as Amendment 7 fails
By KJ Drazen, Lucas Shugarman and Hudson Kuechler, Missouri News Network
Amendment 7 marks another failed legislative attempt to rework Missouri’s tax policy, following a 60% disapproval rating from voters on Tuesday.
However, Amendment 8 was seeing success amongst voters across the state, as it held a narrow 2 percentage point advantage late Tuesday.
Amendment 7 would have introduced the Show-Me Prosperity Fund to eliminate all state-imposed taxes.
To fund it, the Missouri General Assembly would have appropriated money from existing revenue streams with no guidelines on where that money would come from, what government services would be affected, or how large the investment would be.
Bill sponsor Sen. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles, said that if the state invested a one-time investment of $250 million “by the 125-year mark, with inflation-adjusted dollars, the fund would be more than enough to fully cover the state budget.”
With Missouri already facing a projected $1.7 billion deficit by the end of the fiscal year, critics say Missouri should focus on managing its existing revenue and prioritize spending on services such as education and infrastructure.
“Nothing changes. We’re just going to keep taxing ourselves,” said Schnelting of the amendment’s failure.
Schnelting said he is headed back to the drawing board to find new approaches to taxation.
With it’s passing, Amendment 8 will create a state constitutional requirement of the election of sheriffs to a four-year term and deeming them chief of law enforcement in all counties except for St. Louis County, St. Charles County and the city of St. Louis. State law already requires that.
By installing the office of sheriff into the Missouri Constitution, proponents said it would help protect the public’s rights to elect their sheriff as their chief law enforcement officer.
“At its core, this bill is about one simple but powerful idea: accountability to the people,” said bill sponsor Sen. Jill Carter, R-Granby.
With the office of sheriff now recognized in the Missouri Constitution, it will be difficult for legislative or citizen action to alter provisions governing sheriffs.
In addition, the amendment altered the way in which a sheriff can be removed from office. The attorney general will now have sole authority to do so by filing a quo-warranto petition. Previously, local prosecuting attorneys could petition courts to remove a sheriff.
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Congressional incumbents secure 3rd and 4th districts
By Jae Jepsen and Nolan Haberstroh, Missouri News Network
Two Republican incumbents representing Boone County in Congress won reelection Tuesday.
Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District was reelected for his second term, defeating Democrat candidate Bethany Mann in a repeat of 2024’s race.
Republican Rep. Mark Alford was reelected to a third term in the 4th District, defeating Democrat Jordan Herrera. The race was called with him receiving 64.2% of votes in the district. In 2024, he received over 71% of the vote.
In the 3rd District, Onder was receiving 54.1% of the votes, which encompasses a large portion of southern Columbia, and several western suburbs of St. Louis, including St. Charles and St. Peters, and much of mid-Missouri, including the state capital, Jefferson City.
In 2024, he received 61.3% of the vote.
Onder formerly served terms in both the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate. He also works as a physician and lawyer.
Onder has campaigned against abortion and is in favor of preventing illegal immigration. His other priorities include protecting Second Amendment rights, welfare reform, which would limit food stamp usage, and removal of regulations that are damaging to farmers.
In a speech in September, Onder made clear he will continue to push for limits on the power of Missouri’s ballot initiative system, arguing the system goes too far.
“We have too much direct democracy, we have government by initiative petition. Paid signature-gatherer shoving petitions in front of people’s face in front of Walmart, people signing because they wanna get that guy out of their face,” Onder said. “And paid for by out-of-state special interests to buy amendments to the Missouri Constitution.”
Onder expressed before the election that he intends to stay in-line with both his previous policies and what he sees as the direction of the Republican Party. He spoke positively about Republican immigration policy in particular.
“We have detained and deported … criminal illegal aliens and other illegal aliens as well, and they all should be deported, in an unprecedented scale,” Onder said.
“We want to stay on the same path of greater energy independence, lower inflation, more energy production, safe and secure streets, secure borders,” Onder said, “rather than going back to the failed policies of the Biden administration.”
“The strength of Missouri is not found in the halls of Congress,” Alford said in a post-victory speech. “It’s found around kitchen tables, it’s found in churches on Sunday mornings. It’s found in the cornfields of Missouri and the oxen houses, in the small businesses on main street.”
“It’s also found in the quiet strength of parents who wake up every morning determined to give their children a better life,” he continued. “That is the America worth fighting for.”
Alford, a former news anchor and small business owner from Kansas City, was first elected in 2022. His priorities include supporting agriculture, eliminating DEI hiring practices in the military, strengthening national security, defense of Second Amendment rights, decreasing the burdens to rural small-business owners and providing support for veterans.
In April, Alford introduced the Fair and Accurate Ingredient Representation on Labels Act, which would restrict how plant-based and lab-grown meat alternatives can be labeled. Before his reelection, he said he hopes to continue working to get the bill implemented, working collaboratively with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Alford also said prior to the election that he hears constituents’ concerns about the economy amid the Iran War. While he understands the worries, he also believes higher prices are worth the security.
“I think most people my age understand the reality of the threat that this Islamic regime has been, not just to that region, but to the world,” he said. “And to ensure they never have a nuclear weapon, I’m willing to pay an extra $20 a week in fuel as I travel the district.”
Both Onder and Alford are accustomed to serving as part of a Republican majority, and have expressed concern for what a Democrat-led House could mean for their party’s accomplishments.
“(Democrats) are gonna try to reopen the border. They’re gonna try to pull back on everything that we’ve accomplished with the One Big Beautiful Bill staving off, preventing the largest tax increase in U.S. history,” Alford said.
“They’re going to want to renew those taxes, and all this work that we have done, they’re going to try to disassemble,” he added.
In District 2, Democrat Fred Wellman defeated incumbent Republican Ann Wagner giving Missouri three Democratic U.S. representatives with Democratic Reps. Wesley Bell and Emanual Cleaver winning reelection in their districts.
