Good news from Missouri

I grew up around Kansas City, Missouri on both sides of the state line – in Kansas through middle school, and in Missouri during high school. If you've watched the latest episode of Ted Lasso, you know that we enjoy confusing people with our names and our borders.

I was in Missouri for much of July. Local papers were reporting on two ballot measures for the Aug 5 primary that caught my eye.

Amendment 4

Amendment 4 would have changed the state Constitution so that citizen-led constitutional amendments would have required a majority of votes in every single Congressional district. The prior threshold was simple statewide majority – if more than half of Missourians approved of a Constitutional change, regardless of where they lived, it would pass.

Significantly – and, to me, shockingly – Amendment 4 didn't change the rules for constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature. Those would still pass with just a state-wide majority. One rule for ordinary citizens. A different rule for career politicians.

This was, clearly, a cynical ploy to shift power from the people to the legislature. The state legislature is majority Republican – 71% in the state senate, 60% in the house of representatives.

Why try to make the change?

Well, Missouri disappointed hard-right conservatives in 2022 when the citizenry voted to legalize marijuana. In 2024, citizens voted narrowly in favor of an amendment to protect reproductive rights – in particular, the right to abortion – in the state.

Republican leaders are unable to persuade a majority of Missourians to support their positions. In the 2026 primary, they tried instead to disenfranchise those citizens by moving the goalposts for citizen-led initiatives like these.

Amendment 5

The other vote that I was watching during the primary cycle was on Amendment 5. This was, I thought, nakedly in favor of oligarchy. The amendment would eliminate the state's income tax and require that legislators raise sales taxes in order to fill the hole.

Income tax is, generally, progressive – if you make more money, you pay more taxes. Sales tax, by contrast, are regressive: rich and poor folks pay the same amount on eggs and gasoline. That translates into a lower rate of tax on folks who have lots of money – a smaller fraction of what they have. It would have shifted the cost of funding the state heavily onto poorer folks, leaving more money in the pockets of the wealthy.

Missouri's governor Mike Kehoe pushed hard to get Amendment 5 onto the state primary ballot, for a vote on August 4. He claimed that the state would need time to plan for the tax and budget changes. Delaying the vote until November, he said, would cause him and the legislature hardship.

Historically, of course, primary turnout has skewed hard toward older voters – generally wealthier – and the party faithful. Amendment 5 might well face stronger voter opposition in November than in August.

How it went

Both amendments were resoundingly defeated.

Amendment 4, which would have required every single district to pass a citizen-led constitutional amendment, lost in every single district. Eighty percent of the state voted against this power grab.

Amendment 5 lost even worse. Eighty-three percent of voters rejected it.

I don't really view this as a Republican-versus-Democrat story. In Missouri – just look at the composition of the assembly! – most voters are Republican. I see it, instead, as a contest between ordinary citizens, and oligarchs and their bought-and-paid-for political class.

Coming into the midterms, ordinary citizens are making clear who is in charge.

Thanks for showing me, Missouri!