With just two weeks remaining for candidates to file for the August 2 party primary elections, a panel of state appellate judges on March 15 finalized the new state Senate districts that will be used for the next decade. Missouri’s legislative districts must be redrawn every 10 years to reflect population shifts under the most recent U.S. Census. The Judicial Redistricting Commission took over the process in late January after a previous commission evenly split between Republican and Democratic party members deadlocked on a new plan for Missouri’s 34 Senate districts. The judicial commission consists of six judges of the state Court of Appeals appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court. The judicial commission’s plan makes few radical changes and mostly just shifts the borders of the previous Senate map, which had been in use since 2012, to ensure the new districts have roughly equal populations under the 2020 Census and comply with other constitutional requirements. Senate Republicans currently hold a 24-10 advantage over Democrats.

Without new districts in place when candidate filing opened Feb. 28, candidates filed under the outdated 2012 Senate map. Because district lines subsequently changed, some filed candidates now will live in different districts. Under the state constitution, however, the standard in-district residency requirement for candidates is relaxed this year since the new Senate map was finalized less than one year prior to the Nov. 8 general election. Because the four-year terms of senators are staggered, only the 17 even-numbered districts are on the ballot this year. The senators from the 17 odd-numbered districts will continue to serve from the 2012 version of those districts through 2024, when elections first will be held for those seats under the new map. 

A separate bipartisan commission finalized Missouri’s 163 new House of Representatives districts in January. The General Assembly is responsible for redrawing the state’s eight congressional districts, but that redistricting bill is stalled in the Senate. The candidate filing period closes at 5 p.m. on March 29.

– Ingrid Burnett, State Representative, Missouri District 19