Lawsuit seeks $80 million from Denny Hoskins over Missouri congressional map referendum

Five Missouri voters are seeking roughly $80 million from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging he violated state law in his handling of a referendum challenging Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Cole County Circuit Court, asks a judge to allow the plaintiffs to represent approximately 162,000 registered Missouri voters whose signatures on the referendum petition were verified by local election authorities.

At the center of the case is a Missouri law that says the secretary of state must pay between $100 and $500 to an aggrieved person if the officeholder “neglect[s] or refuse[s] to perform any of the duties enjoined on him by law.” The statute has been on the books in its current form since 1945.

Missouri Supreme Court blocks gerrymandered congressional map, orders referendum vote

The plaintiffs are asking for the maximum $500 for each member of the proposed class, which would produce a judgment of about $80 million.

Their lawsuit points to several actions Hoskins took during the months-long legal battle over the congressional map Republican lawmakers passed during a 2025 special legislative session.

More than 330,000 signatures were submitted in an effort to force a statewide referendum on the map. Hoskins ultimately declared the petition insufficient, not because it lacked enough valid signatures but because he concluded congressional redistricting was not subject to Missouri’s referendum process.

The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously rejected that conclusion earlier this month, ruling the petition was legal, sufficient and timely. The court ordered the referendum onto the November ballot and said the congressional districts adopted in 2022 must be used for this year’s general election.

The lawsuit alleges Hoskins violated his statutory duties both by refusing to certify the referendum and later by directing local election officials to use the 2025 map despite the state Supreme Court’s order.

It also targets Hoskins’ role in a subsequent federal lawsuit that briefly produced a conflicting order requiring use of the 2025 districts. The plaintiffs allege Hoskins improperly consented to that order, citing another Missouri law that prohibits public officials from agreeing to court orders that conflict with state election statutes.

The lawsuit characterizes the federal case as “collusive,” an allegation that has not been established by a court.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the federal order, restoring the Missouri Supreme Court’s requirement that the November election proceed under the 2022 map.

Later that day, the Missouri Supreme Court found Hoskins had been in contempt for directing election officials to use the 2025 districts. The court imposed no punishment after Hoskins reversed course and instructed local officials to use the 2022 map, finding that he had purged the contempt.

The new lawsuit does not seek to change which map will be used in November. Instead, it seeks monetary damages for referendum petition signers who contend Hoskins’ actions violated duties imposed on him by state law.

A judge would first have to decide whether the case can proceed as a class action and whether the petition signers qualify as people “aggrieved” under the damages statute.