ST. LOUIS — The Freedom Principle has announced its support for former President Donald Trump and the Missouri Freedom Caucus in urging Gov. Mike Kehoe to call a special legislative session to redraw the state’s congressional district map and pursue initiative petition reform.
The organization’s president, Byron Keelin, said the changes are needed to better reflect Missouri voters and protect the state constitution from outside influence.
“We support President Trump and the Missouri Freedom Caucus’ call for a special session to address these important topics,” Keelin said. “The Freedom Principle has been a proponent of protecting our Constitution from out-of-state, and in some circumstances, out-of-country dark money interests and was a leading voice in the support for a 7-1 congressional map in 2022.”
According to Freedom Principle, the push for a new district map stems from the results of the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump carried 110 of Missouri’s 114 counties.
Keelin said a 7-1 congressional map — meaning seven Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning district — would more accurately represent the state’s voting patterns.
“This is an opportunity to correct a wrong in 2022,” Keelin said. “Republican leadership compromised in 2022 and disenfranchised the conservative voters. This is the right time to redraw the Missouri Congressional Districts to reflect the actual will of Missourians.”
The group is also calling on Kehoe to take up initiative petition reform during the proposed special session. Keelin said Missouri’s current process has made the state “a lab experiment of left-wing radical groups” who use the system to push “radical woke agendas.”
He argued that these groups are bypassing the legislature to pass measures that otherwise would not survive the traditional legislative process.
“These left-wing radical groups are usurping the legislative process and taking advantage of our broken initiative petition process to implement their radical legislative priorities,” Keelin said.
The Freedom Principle supports adopting the Concurrent Majority Ratification process, which would require both a simple majority of the statewide popular vote and a simple majority of support in either congressional or state representative districts before a constitutional amendment could pass.
“The Concurrent Majority Ratification is the most equitable way to ensure all Missourians have a say when it comes to amending our Constitution,” Keelin said. “We are currently working with legislators and are open to all suggestions, whether it’s requiring a higher threshold to amend the constitution or mandating that ballot measures receive support from multiple regions across the state.”
Keelin said the organization has been working with the legislature for more than five years on reform, but lawmakers have failed to pass significant changes. He urged state leaders to prioritize the issue and resist pressure from special interest groups.
“The Freedom Principle has been working with the legislature for more than five years, and every year the legislature fails to deliver. We need to make this a priority now and not let the special interest groups derail our efforts,” Keelin said.
The group believes a special session would allow lawmakers to focus on these issues without the distractions of a regular session.
Keelin reiterated his organization’s alignment with the Missouri Freedom Caucus’s call for immediate action.
“We support the Missouri Freedom Caucus’s call for Governor Parson to call a special session as soon as possible,” Keelin said, referencing a letter from Senator Schroer. “As Senator Schroer stated in his letter, ‘It’s time Republicans grew a spine and fought for what matters to We the People or get the hell out of the way for the real leaders to take charge.’ We couldn’t agree more.”
