Unceremonious start to Missouri special session
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The second special session of 2025 kicked off without much fanfare or many lawmakers.
About two dozen members of the Missouri House gathered for a quick technical session so that bills relating to Governor Mike Kehoe’s call for a special session could be filed.
Lawmakers will begin hearings Thursday on five bills introduced in the House. One deals with congressional remapping and the other four are tied more to initiative petition reform, which is the second part of Kehoe’s call for an extraordinary session.
With only representing a super minority in the Missouri Legislature, Democrats say there is little they can do.
“That's the challenge. But what we can do is make sure that we're raising our voice,” State Rep. Ken Strickler, D-Lee’s Summit, said. “(Republicans) have the votes to do whatever they want. That's part of the problem here: they're doing whatever they want.”
Potential lawsuits aside, legislators on both sides of the aisle said both the new congressional maps as well as the initiative petition reform will likely pass out of both chambers next week.
“When I was in the House of Representatives, I fought for a 7-1 map,” Republican State Sen. David Gregory of St. Louis County, said. “Obviously, I did not succeed, but I'm going to be fighting now again in the Senate.
“I think it's going to get done.”
