After months of all-out warfare between the Missouri House and Senate and within the Senate, the state’s GOP-run legislature finally passed a new congressional map on Thursday and sent it to Republican Gov. Mike Parson for his signature, a day before the legislative session was set to end.
Had the two chambers not reached an agreement, the redistricting process would have been handed over to the courts, where lawsuits had already been filed due to the ongoing impasse. That looming deadline likely helped bring the long-running feud to an end, along with an ever-present threat by GOP leaders in the Senate to "move the previous question"—a parliamentary maneuver designed to cut off a filibuster, the vehicle that a small band of far-right dissenters had used to thwart earlier attempts to pass a map.
The "PQ," as it's known, is often referred to as the "nuclear option" in Missouri politics and is seldom deployed in the Senate—the threat of it is often sufficient. It also, apparently, has never been used by a party against its own members. Rather than face the possibility they’d make ignominious history, the renegade Conservative Caucus surrendered, and the Senate approved the new map in a lopsided 26-5 vote. (The House had passed it on Tuesday.)
The map preserves the GOP's 6-2 advantage in the state's congressional delegation, as Republican leaders in both the House and Senate had wanted. By contrast, the Conservative Caucus had long demanded a 7-1 map that would carve up the Democratic-held 5th District in Kansas City, but the hardliners eventually caved and allowed a 6-2 map to advance in late March. The House, however, rejected that proposal, with one member accusing the Senate of making tweaks that "took care of some people, some senators down there, that needed it for their political benefit."
One person who might actually benefit from the final product is Rep. Ann Wagner, whose competitive 2nd District in the St. Louis suburbs got shored up by extending it westward into more rural turf and making it considerably redder. Under the old lines, the 2nd was the closest district in the nation on the presidential level, voting for Donald Trump by a margin of just 0.03%, or just 115 votes. The new version instead would have voted 53-45 for Trump, according to Dave’s Redistricting App.
But that may or may not be welcome news for Wagner. Last year, according to Politico, a fellow attendee at an event in D.C. was overheard telling the congresswoman he hoped legislators would draw a safer seat for her. But Wagner, who passes for a pragmatist in today's GOP, reportedly responded, "Then you get those wacko birds." A spokesperson did not deny the report, and the wacko birds might very well like to deny Wagner another term. They'll probably have to wait another cycle, though, as the incumbent hasn't drawn any potent challengers in the Aug. 2 primary.