Missouri Senate Democrats break record for longest filibuster as end of session nears

Democrats in the Missouri Senate broke the record for the longest filibuster in the chamber’s history on Wednesday while blocking a vote on a plan to make it harder for voters to amend the state constitution.

The group of nine Democrats has spent more than 46 hours straight halting the legislation in the General Assembly’s final week of session. That surpasses the previous modern record set earlier this year by members of the hard-right Missouri Freedom Caucus, who held the floor for 41 hours.

Democratic Sens. Karla May and Steve Roberts, both from St. Louis, were on the Senate floor when the record was broken.

“Glad to share this moment with you,” Roberts told May just after 7:30 a.m. “We’re taking the longest filibuster back into the hands of the minority (party).”

The lengthy filibuster has halted all action in the Missouri Senate and threatens to kill a flurry of bills just days before the final day of session on Friday.

The legislation at issue would overhaul the state’s century-old initiative petition process that allows voters to place constitutional amendments on the ballot by gathering signatures.

It would require future amendments to the state constitution to be approved essentially twice, a majority vote in at least five of the state’s eight congressional districts, and a majority vote statewide.

Currently, constitutional amendments only need a majority vote statewide and have been used by voters of both parties to pass policy measures when the General Assembly fails to come to an agreement.

Senate Democrats have vowed to block the measure until Republicans agree to strip deceptive language attached to the measure that have been labeled as “ballot candy” to entice voters.

The ballot question placed before voters would also ask Missourians whether they want to ban foreign interference in ballot measures and allow only U.S. citizens to vote on constitutional amendments.

Both are already illegal.

“This is such deception,” May said Wednesday morning. “You’re taking away the people’s ability to make their own public policy.”

The measure has long been a priority for Republicans as voters across the state have used initiative petitions to pass several liberal-leaning measures such as Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, and overturning a right-to-work law.

“I think it’s far too easy to change the constitution in this state,” Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee’s Summit Republican, told The Star this week.

Republicans have felt a renewed energy to overhaul the initiative petition process as abortion rights supporters embark on a campaign to overturn the state’s abortion ban in November.

Some anti-abortion Republicans are hoping to place the question on the August ballot as a way to raise the approval threshold to block the potential abortion rights vote in November.

The possibility of the abortion rights vote could put pressure on Senate Republicans to cut off the Democratic filibuster through a “Previous Question” motion or PQ. The move to shut off debate is viewed as the chamber’s nuclear option and has only been used eight times since 2007 — most recently in 2020.

House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said Wednesday morning that he was not concerned about the filibuster blocking several Republican-led priorities this year.

“The Senate filibuster will make it harder to pass some of the House bills that we’ve sent over,” said Patterson, who is poised to be the next House speaker. “But I think there are enough things that we can get done, that it will still be a good session whether or not they leave early.”