More than 300,000 citizens signed a petition to put my beautiful new Missouri congressional map before the voters. More than 300,000! A tremendous number, an enormous number, far more than the roughly 111,000 signatures required. Some very low-IQ people are saying Missouri has seen bigger signature drives, which is fine, because I do not need the biggest anything. I only need to WIN.
Then Secretary of State Denny Hoskins declared the referendum void on the last day allowed under state law, saying that challenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law. This was PERFECT timing. The new districts had already been used in Tuesday’s primaries, which means the voters no longer needed to decide whether to use them. Very efficient. Very strong. Very democratic. The voting was already done.
I know what democracy is. I have the BEST democracy. I have more democracy than anybody. People are saying that when hundreds of thousands of citizens sign a petition, the citizens should be allowed to vote on the petition. But those people do not understand the Deal. The Deal is that the people vote when the right people have already won.
I called for mid-decade redistricting because I am a MASTER strategist, a 4D-chess player, the greatest map thinker in history, and Missouri responded with a district that dramatically reshapes Kansas City’s Fifth Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver, stretching it into rural central Missouri and giving Republicans a beautiful Republican tilt. Republicans already hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats and hope to gain another under the new lines, which is not partisan. It is a natural phenomenon, like gravity, except gravity has never been this loyal.
I had NOTHING to do with the exact lines, of course. I barely know what a congressional district is. Except I had everything to do with the idea, which is how leadership works. The map is mine in the same way the primary turnout is mine. Any Republican who wins under it is a loyal patriot who understood the assignment. Any Republican who loses is weak, disloyal, low-energy, and probably did not appreciate the tremendous opportunity I gave them.
The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the redistricting, and a judge ruled that the districts could take effect. That proves I was right before anybody else knew what right was. I always said the map would be used, then challenged, then upheld, then possibly voted on. I said all of that after it happened, which is exactly what I predicted. And if I did not say it after the map was drawn, I said it before the map was drawn. If I did not say it before the map was drawn, I will say that I always said it. This is how FORESIGHT works. Very advanced. Many people cannot understand it.
My uncle, the great MIT professor, understood this kind of geometry immediately. He told me that a district becomes more legitimate every time a court allows it to operate. Many people, very smart people, the BEST map people, are saying the same thing. The more a map is used, the more used it is. Beautiful logic.
The referendum group says it will contest the rejection in court. Richard von Glahn, apparently an executive director and therefore probably someone who thinks he can execute something, called the decision a last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice. The people’s voice! I LOVE the people’s voice when it says what I want, and I respect it tremendously when it confirms that I am the most popular person in the history of congressional cartography.
More than 300,000 signatures is a very large number, bigger than almost anything I have ever seen on a piece of paper. But numbers are only legally meaningful when they help me. When they hurt me, they are paperwork with poor energy. The people who signed the petition are also people, technically, but not the BEST people. They are confused because they do not understand the sophisticated democratic principle that a vote is most democratic when it cannot change the result.
Secretary Hoskins waited until the last day allowed to announce the rejection, which was a fantastic deal for my side. The new districts remained in use while everyone argued about whether they could remain in use. That is not delay. That is NEGOTIATION. You appear to lose time, then you win the calendar. You let everybody panic, you let the map operate, you let the primaries happen, and then you make the decision. The art of the Deal!
The other side thinks they found a trap, but they walked into the BIGGEST trap in Missouri history, a trap so beautiful that it looks exactly like an administrative deadline. They got the signatures; I got the result. Very few people could have done it, believe me.
I also rejected another petition, backed by Respect Missouri Voters, that would have required an 80% vote in both legislative chambers to amend or reverse voter-approved initiatives. Eighty percent is a very high number, almost as high as my approval numbers when the cameras are on, but apparently not high enough to protect voters from the legislature changing what voters approved. The coalition says this is why citizens gathered signatures in the first place. I say the people are very smart when they gather signatures for my side and very confused when they gather signatures against my side. That is called COMMON SENSE.
The critics are calling this a brazen disregard for the will of the people. I disagree. I have more regard for the will of the people than anyone in history. I regard it so highly that I protect it from being expressed prematurely, incorrectly, or in a way that might interfere with districts already being used. That is COMPASSION. That is FAIRNESS. That is the highest form of listening.
I have NOTHING to do with power. I am only interested in winning, and winning is a public service when I do it. The map is working. The map is failing. The map is exactly what I wanted. Everyone is saying so.
If a court puts the referendum on the ballot, nobody knows what happens next. Candidates might continue running under the new districts while voters decide whether those districts can be used later. Candidates might run in different districts. The primaries might have to happen again under the old map. Missouri’s mid-decade redistricting fight has already produced about a dozen lawsuits, and now the courts may have to decide everything all over again.
This is tremendous uncertainty. But I am not uncertain. I am certain that the voters are very happy. The people are saying they are happy. The best people are telling me they are happy. If the courts restore the map, that proves they understood my plan. If the voters reject it, that proves they were manipulated into confirming my plan. If nobody can explain what happens next, that proves the plan was too advanced for them.
I did not redraw Missouri to lose. I did not support a map that would become uncertain. I created the most successful uncertainty in the history of uncertainty. I created the POST-PRIMARY VICTORY, a victory in every possible procedural outcome. A tremendous victory. A perfect victory. A victory so strong it can survive a do-over.
Why do they believe me? No, that is not what I mean. They believe the Deal because the Deal is beautiful. They believe the map because the map is working. They believe the voters because the voters are smart. They believe the people because the people are saying it. Anyway, I had NOTHING to do with it, and the crowds are the biggest in history.
I protected the Constitution, the primary, the referendum, and the beautiful right of voters to vote later, maybe, on something that has already happened. If the courts order a new primary, that will be exactly what I wanted. It will prove the original victory was so strong it could survive being rerun. Everyone will say it was a secret victory. The biggest secret victory. The most visible secret victory in history!
Working-file anchors: Missouri reporting on the more than 300,000 signatures collected by People Not Politicians Missouri; the roughly 111,000-signature qualification threshold; Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’s rejection of the congressional-map referendum and the separate Respect Missouri Voters petition; statements by Richard von Glahn; the Missouri Supreme Court’s redistricting ruling; and the March 28, 2026 report that a judge ruled the Diklis Chump-backed House districts could take effect: Missouri judge rules Diklis Chump-backed House districts take effect.