GOP spent $2.9 million to stop Missourians from voting on gerrymander

When opponents of Missouri’s new, GOP-backed congressional map began gathering signatures to advance a ballot measure to veto the map, they faced an onslaught of opposition from Republicans.

GOP officials filed lawsuits, attempted to get signatures disqualified, wrote biased ballot language to confuse voters, sent out intimidating text messages to Missourians, and even threatened to sic immigration officers on signature gatherers.

Now, a new ethics report has revealed that the Republican Party spent $2.9 million on efforts to defeat the signature drive.

It’s an “astronomical amount of money,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, which has led the signature drive.

According to a Missouri Ethics Commission report released on Jan. 15, Put Missouri First — a GOP political action committee (PAC) — paid virtually all of that money to Patriot Grassroots, a political campaign company that has been promoted online by Donald Trump Jr. 

Patriot Grassroots has also been involved in efforts to collect signatures for a ballot measure to repeal Utah’s Proposition 4, which bans partisan gerrymanders. Signature gatherers working on the effort have described problems getting paid by the company. Utahns also have said they were given misleading information by signature gatherers for the measure. 

In the report, Put Missouri First writes that Patriot Grassroots provided services including “signature gathering opposition.” It isn’t clear what activities that describes.

The ethics disclosure also reveals just how national the effort to silence Missouri voters has been.

The Republican National Committee gave Put Missouri First nearly $105,000, and the National Republican Congressional Committee provided another $50,000.

But the largest donations — $1.45 million each — came from Securing American Greatness, a dark money group that supports President Donald Trump, and the American Action Network, a conservative nonprofit.

Last year, Trump called on Republican-controlled states to redraw their congressional maps in a bid to secure a GOP victory during the 2026 midterm elections. Legislatures in Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri immediately sprung into action and passed new gerrymandered maps.

But in Missouri, Republicans faced a hurdle: The state’s constitution allows voters to gather signatures in support of a so-called “veto referendum” and put new legislation to a statewide vote. Missouri voters did just that.

Last month, People Not Politicians submitted over 300,000 signatures in support of the referendum. But on Jan. 7, Missouri officials disqualified a third of them for being collected too early. 

People Not Politicians is challenging that decision in court.

Referendum organizations still should have enough signatures to freeze Missouri’s new map until after the state holds the referendum. But Republican officials are claiming the new map is already in effect — and the congressional district boundaries it establishes will stay in place unless a referendum overturns the map.

Missouri voters are suing to prevent the state from using the new map until after the referendum.