Gov. Mike Kehoe speaks during a mid-legislative-session press conference with GOP leadership on Thursday (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
To say the GOP legislative supermajority in Missouri is functioning again would be an understatement.
After years of Republican infighting left the General Assembly mired in gridlock and setting new records for futility, a unified party entered the 2025 legislation session determined to move past the dysfunction.
On Thursday, as the session approached its midpoint and lawmakers headed home for spring break, Republicans took a victory lap.
“The folks standing behind me, and I’ve been around this building several years now, have certainly produced incredible results,” Gov. Mike Kehoe told reporters as he stood with GOP members of the House and Senate on the Missouri Capitol steps Thursday. “Party unity early in the session has been a big piece of it.”
Two high-profile bills that have historically faced fierce resistance have already found their way to Kehoe’s desk this week.
One is a sweeping utilities bill that repeals a consumer protection law passed by voters almost 50 years ago.
The other is a state takeover of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, a key piece of the governor’s public safety agenda.
Both would have been unthinkable in previous years, when the tumult made even routine legislation a heavy lift.
Numerous other Republican priorities have cleared one legislative chamber or the other, ranging from a $1.3 billion tax cut plan to state foster care system reforms to public school open enrollment to a permanent ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatment for transgender minors.
“It was the right year to join the Senate,” said state Sen. Brad Hudson, a Republican from Cape Fair who joined the chamber in January after several years in the Missouri House. .
State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, said this is the first time in her two years in the Senate where cooperation, instead of confrontation, is the major theme.
“People don’t hate each other,” she said.
Meanwhile, Democrats have been forced back onto defense, with only 10 seats in the suddenly functional 34-member Senate and no Republican discord to gum up the legislative process.
The vibe shift has caught the party flat footed at times, such as when they were slow to respond to a permanent ban on gender-affirming care getting tacked onto an unrelated bill as an amendment earlier this year and thus were ultimately unable to get it removed.
“There were a lot of people who were lulled to sleep over the last few years,” said state Sen. Stephen Webber, a Columbia Democrat who joined the chamber in January. “There was a bit of a slow awakening early on this session, because everyone was so accustomed to nothing happening and were shocked when bills started moving. But people are starting to get their legs under them.”
The bills that are being debated aren’t what Democrats would have chosen if they were in charge, Webber said. But being vastly outnumbered, they aren’t going to be able to dictate terms to the majority party.
“A lot of bills have passed,” he said, “but there’s also been a lot of negotiation to try to make bills better where we can.”
He pointed specifically at the state takeover of the St. Louis police.
Democrats weren’t able to stop the bill, but a number of provisions were added that have been longtime party priorities — such as banning the shackling of pregnant prisoners, establishing a fund for the wrongfully convicted to receive restitution from the state and limiting what jails and prisons can charge inmates for phone calls.
In the House, where Democrats have even less power with only 52 of the chamber’s 163 seats, the onslaught of the Republican agenda has some calling for a change in strategy.
“Democrats, we have to think strategically and come up with our own comprehensive plan to leverage our power in this chamber,” said state Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins, a St. Louis Democrat. “I don’t think we’re doing a very good job of that this year.”
New leadership
A big factor in the GOP’s early success is the change in the governor’s office, said House Speaker Jon Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican.
Kehoe was sworn in as governor in January, after six years as lieutenant governor and eight as a state senator. Unlike his predecessor, Republican Mike Parson, Kehoe has made it a priority to be a visible presence in the Capitol and personally work closely with individual lawmakers.
“He’s walking the halls, talking with members,” Patterson said, “and that leadership really makes a difference.”
There was also a lot of turnover in the Missouri Senate, both among rank-and-file members and leadership.
Senate Majority Leader Tony Luektemeyer, a Parkville Republican who assumed his leadership position in January, said that when his caucus can focus on “our shared principles” and working as a team, “we can deliver real results for the people of Missouri.”
State Rep. Marlon Anderson, a St. Louis Democrat and assistant House minority leader, didn’t share Luektemeyer’s rosy outlook on how the session has gone so far.
Anderson pointed specifically at Republican efforts to overturn Proposition A, an initiative petition overwhelmingly approved by voters in November that guarantees sick leave for hundreds of thousands of workers and gradually hikes the minimum wage to $15.
The House approved legislation Thursday that would repeal the sick leave law and modify the minimum wage increase.
But Republicans were unable to muster enough votes to enact an emergency clause, which takes a two-thirds majority, meaning that even if it were to pass and get to Kehoe’s desk it wouldn’t go into effect until Aug. 28 — months after the sick leave law kicked in.
The GOP is also determined to overturn Amendment 3, another voter-approved initiative petition that enshrined abortion rights in the Missouri Constitution.
Bills in the House and Senate would put another question on the ballot asking voters to reinstate Missouri’s abortion ban, but this time with a narrow exception for survivors of rape and incest who report the crime to police.
“We are basically fighting to uphold the will of the people,” Anderson said of his fellow Democrats. “The people voted in November. We’re going to stand with the voters.”
Education, tax cuts and Roundup
While abortion and paid sick leave legislation will run into Democratic resistance, several issues remain that could create fissures in the Republican caucus.
The House passed legislation that would shield German pharmaceutical company Bayer from liability in lawsuits that allege its herbicide Roundup causes cancer.
Nine Republican senators — including members of the Freedom Caucus, which was the focal point of GOP infighting the last two years — declared outright opposition to the bill, vowing to block it from coming up for a vote.
Tensions within the party have even emerged on tax cuts.
A $300 million capital gains tax cut bill approved by the House earlier this year ran into problems in the Senate when GOP state Sen. Mike Cierpiot of Lee’s Summit joined with Democrats in voicing concerns about its impact on the state’s finances and which Missourians would benefit most.
“It’s just very skewed to the most wealthy people,” Cierpiot said of the proposal. “The 8,000 wealthiest families (in Missouri) will get more than half of the benefit.”
A public school open enrollment bill managed to clear the House with 22 Republicans joining with all but three Democrats in opposition. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it has stalled year after year..
Overall, a functioning legislature is a good thing for Missouri, Webber said, though it definitely comes with downsides.
“There are things that need to be done that were nearly impossible when the Senate didn’t function, so it’s good that we’re able to pass some bills,” he said. “But there are some really bad ideas that now have more potential to pass because the place is functioning.”
The Independent’s Rudi Keller contributed to this story.
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