Republicans have dominated Missouri’s legislature for over two decades, but they haven’t entirely controlled state lawmaking, in large part because Missouri empowers citizens to petition for ballot referendums. Over the objections of the state’s conservative leaders, Missouri citizens since 2020 have launched successful petitions for ballot measures that saw voters legalize marijuana, raise the minimum wage, guarantee paid sick leave, expand Medicaid, and revoke the state’s abortion ban.

Angered by these citizen-led reforms, Republicans advanced a constitutional amendment last week that would effectively kill the initiative process.

The proposal, which will now go before voters for a statewide referendum in 2026, would drastically raise the threshold for a citizen-led initiative to pass. While all measures in the state currently require a majority vote statewide, the GOP proposal would require citizen-led initiatives to also win majorities in each of the state’s eight congressional districts.

Constitutional amendments placed on the ballot by legislators would be exempt from the new hurdle, and would still only require a statewide majority to pass.

Under the proposed new rule for citizen-led ballot measures, all five popular initiatives that Missouri voters have approved since 2020 would have failed instead, a Bolts analysis found.