Gov. Mike Kehoe calls the Supreme Court's decision "disappointing" but says "Missouri will follow the Court's order"
Governor of Missouri, in an official statement from the governor's office
“It is disappointing that today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court means Missouri will conduct its November general election under a different congressional map than its primary election. Voters deserved consistency and certainty, and not for the rules to be changed between elections. Nevertheless, Missouri will follow the Court’s order.”
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
Official statement from the governor's office issued the day the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the federal orders requiring the 2025 map.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Original text
About this source
Unsigned per curiam order on an application that Circuit Justice Brett Kavanaugh referred to the full Court. It stays the Eighth Circuit's September 21 mandate and September 22 order and the district court's September 21 and 22 injunctions, keeps the Court's September 10 stay in place, and says the lower courts should not prohibit use of the 2022 map or require use of the 2025 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri. The text of the order shows no separate opinion or noted dissent.
Original post
About this source
Post from the governor's official account, a government-verified account, published the evening Chief Judge Stephen Clark issued his temporary restraining order.
Before the quotation
The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Eighth Circuit's mandate and the district court's injunctions on September 25 and said lower courts should not require use of the 2025 map in the 2026 election.
After the quotation
As of the evening of September 25, 2026, we could not locate a later statement from Kehoe on the map. Before the Court's order, on September 8, he had said on X that the Missouri First Map would be used in the general election.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Should Missouri be allowed to use its 2025 congressional map in the 2026 general election?
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is use of the 2025 map in the 2026 general election. Kehoe says it is disappointing that the general election map will differ from the primary map and that voters deserved consistency, which continues to favor using the 2025 map, while committing to comply. The closest competing label, “Mixed or conditional”, loses because the pledge to comply concerns what the State will do and does not change his stated view of what voters deserved.
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Should Missouri be allowed to use its 2025 congressional map in the 2026 general election?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full caseSupreme Court of the United States
“In short, as a matter of state law, the 2022 map—not the 2025 map—must be used in the 2026 congressional election. … At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos. Purcell protects against such disorder. … And the District Court and Court of Appeals should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the 2025 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.”Read statement
Campaign Legal Center
“Pursuant to this Court’s orders and the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling on state law, election administration has proceeded under the 2022 map, ballots have already been mailed, and voting has begun. … This Court must once again step in to restore order by granting the Applicants’ requested relief.”Read statement
“to invalidate a primary in which 1.2 million Missourians chose their primary candidates is really to invalidate our whole electoral process by judicial fiat. A very bad decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, an excellent decision yesterday by the Eighth Circuit.”Read statement