GOP’s so-called ‘Missouri First’ redistricting puts democracy last | Opinion

The Missouri Senate has just taken an unprecedented step. Using a rarely invoked maneuver called the “previous question,” Republican leadership forced through initiative petition reform and a redrawn congressional map known as “Missouri First.”

None of this comes as a surprise. Reports confirm that President Donald Trump himself called into a state Senate caucus meeting to demand support, inflating his poll numbers and insisting he needed Missouri to help secure control of the U.S. House. The pressure campaign worked. The majority party caved during this extraordinary special session, with taxpayers footing the bill of more than $100,000.

Since Missourians are faced with the results of this shameless power grab, we must remember the names of those who never had the chance to cast a ballot freely in this country.

Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old church deacon in Alabama, was gunned down while marching for voting rights. Medgar Evers was assassinated in his own driveway for registering Black voters. Viola Liuzzo, a mother of five from Detroit, was murdered on an Alabama highway because she believed in freedom. Herbert Lee was killed in Mississippi for his work with the NAACP. Lamar Smith, a World War I veteran, was shot on a courthouse lawn for organizing voter registration. George Lee, a minister, was murdered for encouraging his community to vote. Jonathan Daniels, a young seminarian, died shielding a Black teenager. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi for daring to register voters.

Their names are more than tombstones along the road to democracy. They should be daily reminders that the right to vote in America has always been paid for with blood.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, promised equal protection under the law after thousands of newly freed people were massacred during Reconstruction for trying to live as citizens. Nearly 100 years later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed after Selma, after the beatings on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and after the murders of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Medgar Evers. Congress finally said enough. The right to vote is fundamental, and partisan maneuvers cannot carve it away.

We must also remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who marched, was jailed and was assassinated in Memphis while supporting sanitation workers demanding dignity. He understood that voting rights, civil rights and economic rights are bound together. His life is proof that representation costs flesh and blood.

Districts redrawn only after census

Missouri faced its own test. Article III, Section 45 of our state constitution is clear: Congressional districts are drawn after the census, not whenever those in power choose. Section 10, which some point to, applies only to state legislative districts. To misread or misapply these provisions is to betray our oath and join the long line of states that have used legal language to silence voters.

The irony is that this new map is being sold as “Missouri First.” But under decades of one-party rule leadership spearheaded by those now demanding this power grab, Missouri has been anything but first. We rank 35th in children’s health and 33rd in education. We are 42nd in maternal mortality, with mothers dying at far higher rates than in much of the country. We are 47th in health care disparities by income, where poor families suffer worse health and shorter lives. Our life expectancy is below the national average.

I implore you not to read these numbers as mere statistics. These are our neighbors buried too soon, classrooms underfunded, and babies who never saw a first birthday. If this legislature truly cared about Missouri being first, it would invest in health, education, and working families instead of pouring taxpayer dollars into partisan maps that silence them.

And make no mistake: This is not only unconstitutional — it is morally wrong. It is wrong to bow to an autocrat. When lawmakers admit they changed their votes because of a phone call from a former president, they are not serving Missouri. They are serving one man. That is not democracy. That is submission. And when a party seeks to silence every opposing voice while guaranteeing only their candidates will be heard, that is one-party rule, which breeds corruption, arrogance, and decay.

Missourians know this. At town halls, people say they feel trapped in a system where representation feels like a string of broken promises. That same sense of being trapped fueled the Boston Tea Party. Ordinary people demanded representation because they knew taxation without representation was tyranny.

We cannot afford to trade away democracy for the promise of a single issue. We cannot exchange freedom for bans on abortion or the stripping away of women’s rights. Tyranny always asks us to sacrifice one liberty in the name of safety. But when one falls, the rest follow.

Community’s voice snatched away

And then we hear it spoken plainly. State Rep. Dirk Deaton, who sponsored this bill, declared he hopes Missouri will only send Republicans to Congress. That is not valor. It is greed. It is domination. It is the end of choice and the end of accountability.

If you doubt the human cost of these lines, listen to Kansas Citian Terrence Wise: “That seat is not Emanuel Cleaver’s seat. That’s my seat, my voice, and my community’s voice that’s being snatched away.” That is what real representation means. When students such as Annabelle Cash, Grant Smits, Bronwynne Miller and N’ya Fritz saw their artwork displayed in the U.S. Capitol through Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s office, every child in our neighborhoods could see possibility. Gerrymandering tells those same children to sit down and be quiet. I refuse to accept that.

The 14th Amendment was written in blood because states abused their power. The Voting Rights Act was written in blood because states abused their power. If we twist Article III, Section 10 into a blank check for mid-cycle gerrymandering, we will again be sanctioning an abuse of power. That is not equal protection. That is not democracy. That is not constitutional.

Confusion tells us this debate is about lines on a map. Truthfully, our conversations should be about whether we honor the dead who fought for voting rights, protect the living who depend on us for fairness and set an example for the children who are watching. If we allow this, we will tell them democracy is negotiable.

Court challenges already started

I refuse to do that. The General Assembly may have used parliamentary tricks to ram this through, but the fight is far from over. Court challenges have already started. We will use the referendum process to let the people speak directly, because democracy cannot be decided in closed caucus meetings.

What happens next will depend on each of us. The most powerful organizing is relational. It means talking to your family, your coworkers, your congregation, your neighbors. It means explaining not just what gerrymandering is, but what it does: how it silences your community, dilutes your vote and steals your voice.

If every Missourian has three conversations about what’s happening, we will build a network no politician can ignore. If every resident of the state shows up at rallies, at canvasses and at town halls, we will show that democracy cannot be strangled by procedure.

Our children are watching us. History is watching us. Let it be said that Missouri stood on the side of democracy.

Dr. Kem Smith represents the 68th District in the Missouri House of Representatives.

This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 5:03 AM.