Denny Hoskins Sos Miz

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Republicans in the Missouri legislature are now threatening to impeach all of the state Supreme Court Justices if they hold Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt of court.

Ahead of the state Supreme Court's hearing on Thursday over Hoskins' order to defy its ruling against changes to the electoral maps, a group of GOP lawmakers published a letter threatening the justices, Fox2NOW reported.

On Wednesday night, 14 members of the Missouri General Assembly signed a letter arguing that Hoskins shouldn't be held in contempt for violating his order because doing so would violate the separation of powers. If the justices do hold Hoskins in contempt, the GOP officials said they'd impeach the judges.

The letter claims, "the facts are not in dispute" over the court's Sept. 3 ruling.

The Republicans issuing the threat told Chief Justice W. Brent Powell, “Should Secretary of Hoskins be held in contempt, we will petition the Speaker of the House and legislative leadership to begin impeachment proceedings against the responsible members of this Court for willful neglect of duty, incompetency and misconduct under Article VII, Sections 1 and 2 of the Missouri Constitution."

The U.S. Supreme Court already stepped in earlier this week to say it would not approve a temporary restraining order that would allow the GOP's maps to be used. Shortly before the Hoskins’ contempt hearing, the U.S. Supreme Court issued another ruling in which the justices rejected the Republican-backed maps intended to eliminate the Democratic district.

Democrats in the state responded to the GOP threat by saying that the letter was judicial tampering, a Class D felony, and that they fully intend to take those Republicans to court.

“Missourians forcefully responded to Republicans’ attempted power grabs last month by rejecting Amendments 4 and 5. They will react even worse to the GOP openly intimidating the Supreme Court as it considers whether the state’s highest election official abused his authority in defiance of the law," the Democrats said in a statement.

“This is how Democracies collapse,” said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Democrat from Kansas City. “Corrupt officials defy the courts; the courts act to hold them responsible; corrupt officials eliminate the courts.”

The chief justice issued an ominous threat that Hoskins not leave town until they decided whether he'd be held in contempt of court.

Kansas City Star editorial board member Toriano Porter wrote on Wednesday that the state has fully fallen into a "constitutional crisis.

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3 IN 1 DAY 4?

Trump hit with jaw dropping negative poll in Missouri for the first time

2 Missouri Republicans have already lost several of its lawsuits as part of the ongoing effort to change the congressional maps less than two months before the 2026 election. Now they're facing another blow.

"Law Dork" Chris Geidner posted on BlueSky that the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in again on the temporary restraining order a federal district court issued blocking changes to the electoral maps.

It has been a tough road for Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, who got a ruling from the state Supreme Court blocking the maps. He then ran to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, demanding that they step in. They did, and Hoskins decided that the district court superseded the state Supreme Court. A law school professor explained that that isn't how it works.

Hoskins on Tuesday emailed election officials, instructing them to break the law and use the map the court ruled against. His email prompted the state Supreme Court to ask why it shouldn't hold Hoskins in contempt of court for defying its ruling. Hoskins had until noon on Wednesday to submit an excuse to the Missouri high court, but instead, he begged the district court to step in and protect him.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, they released a ruling saying that they would not.

The only higher court that can overrule the state Supreme Court is the U.S. Supreme Court, and in its ruling, it made it clear that it deferred to the state Supreme Court.

Hoskins rushed to the U.S. Supreme Court again — but on Thursday morning, they struck it down once again.

There are no noted dissents from the Supreme Court justices.

It makes a definitive ruling that the maps used for the 2026 election will be the 2022 maps, not the new ones the GOP wants to use.

KSDK News political reporter Mark Maxwell, "The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed the federal order that barred Missouri from using any map but the new one. That leaves the state court's ruling as the only one in effect. Election officials and Denny Hoskins are prohibited under court order from using HB1."

Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi said that he submitted a brief to the federal judges and even gave a big thanks to President Donald Trump's Solicitor General John Sauer "and his team for filing a brief in our support on behalf of the United States."

Less than an hour later, the Supreme Court shut it all down.

Michigan State University Law School Professor Quinn Yeargain responded," This has been a stupid journey from beginning to end, and I hope that it culminates in sanctions for Hoskins and the rest of these disgusting ghouls."

Hoskins faces off against the Missouri Supreme Court in a hearing at 11 a.m. EST over his contempt charges.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, had a tough hearing before the Missouri state Supreme Court on Thursday, in which the state attorney general's office was forced to defend him against contempt charges for refusing to comply with a ruling they issued on the usage of congressional maps for the upcoming 2026 election.

Like many states, Missouri Republicans attempted to redraw lines to eliminate Democratic seats and help President Donald Trump keep as many GOP members of Congress as possible.

Ultimately, the hearing closed with Chief Justice W. Brent Powell telling the attorney general's office, "I would tell your client, the secretary of state, not to venture far from Jefferson City until this contempt ruling is decided."

It wasn't the only verbal smackdown delivered by the conservative state court.

Chuck Hatfield, counsel for People Not Politicians, the group that sued over the use of the 2026 maps, began the hearing by walking through the quickly changing legal situation, but Hoskins knowingly ignored the ruling and told local election officials not to follow the law. To him, that is worthy of a contempt ruling.

Missouri's AG's office lawyer claimed that Hoskins was in a difficult position because one court said one thing and another court said another. The reason for that, however, is that Hoskins went to the federal court when he didn't like the ruling from the state Supreme Court. He also asked the federal court to intervene to protect him from being held in contempt. The judge refused.

The justices didn't appear to buy into it, asking whether Hoskins fully understands that the law changing to the new maps, known as House Bill 1 (HB1), never went into effect. Chief Justice Powell, along with other justices, asked multiple times and in different ways whether Hoskins fully grasped that the maps were never legally changed. The AG office's lawyer appeared to play around with the admission, saying that Hoskins understands that now, but before, he was in a difficult position.

"We’re in a precarious situation," a frustrated Powell said. He urged them all to "get on the same page" and "find a way to save some of these elections so they are valid and we can sit the congressional delegation that our state is entitled to."

One justice cut in to say that they have a larger concern that the secretary of state could turn around and use maps that aren't law.

According to the attorney general's lawyer, Secretary of State Hoskins "acknowledges that this court's injunction is back in full force and effect" and is "evaluating next steps." In fact, the lawyer said multiple times that he hadn't had much time to confer with Hoskins since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling about an hour prior to the contempt hearing. So, Hoskins is still "evaluating the situation."

"I mean, it's just English," one justice said.

The justice explained that Hoskins could easily have waited until he had a final ruling on the matter as a whole, but instead, he chose the decision he wanted most and broadcast it to local officials, thereby causing more confusion. They asked what direction he had given to officials, and the AG's office said that there wasn't any.

A justice cut in to say that actually wasn't the case. The most recent message from the secretary of state's office was not to follow the law and the ruling by the state Supreme Court.

The hearing ended with Hoskins committing to telling the local officials that he lost in court and that they must comply with the 2022 maps.

As for his contempt, the justices said that he shouldn't leave town any time soon.

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All across the country, Republican candidates who openly doubt the outcome of the 2020 election are running in statewide elections. This includes Republican nominees for both U.S. Senate races as well as gubernatorial elections, and even candidates seeking to oversee their respective state's elections.

CNN found that of the 51 Republican statewide hopefuls on the 2024 ballot, 23 of them — a full 45% of all Republican statewide candidates – are election deniers. And many election deniers are seeking office in some of the most hotly contested battleground states in presidential elections.

34 states are holding U.S. Senate elections in November. And 14 Republican Senate candidates have gone on the record supporting election-denying narratives. This includes incumbents like Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Rick Scott (R-Florida) as well as candidates seeking to oust Democrats like Sam Brown in Nevada, Kari Lake in Arizona, Bernie Moreno in Ohio and Royce White in Minnesota.

Governors also play an important role in safeguarding elections by signing Electoral College certificates after their respective states' electors meet following a presidential election. In the event a far-right election denier becomes governor, it's possible a legislature may have to intervene in order to make sure electoral college certificates get signed.

This possibility has become a concern for many former governors, who recently co-signed an open letter to current governors urging them to certify their states' Electoral College certificates following the November election. Co-signers include former Governors Jeb Bush (R-Florida), Tom Corbett (R-Pennsylvania), Gray Davis (D-California), Jim Hodges (D-South Carolina) and Mark Schweiker (R-Pennsylvania), among others.

"We write as bipartisan former Governors with an eye to December 11th. This is the deadline for issuing and sending Certificates of Ascertainment to the National Archives. This is six days before the Electoral College will meet in state capitals across our nation," the letter read. "While there is much to debate on the campaign trail, we expect all candidates and the American people will agree that this time-honored process during our post-election period is not open for debate. It is simply a ministerial and administrative duty."

Some of the more notable election deniers running for governor include Mike Braun in Indiana, Greg Gianforte in Montana, Mike Kehoe in Missouri, Patrick Morrisey in West Virginia and Mark Robinson in North Carolina. While four of those states are reliably red, North Carolina is regarded as a battleground state, with both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a dead heat. Robinson is currently trailing Democrat Josh Stein – the current attorney general — in the gubernatorial race by double digits.

Perhaps the most dangerous office for an election denier to hold is secretary of state, which in most states is the official tasked with overseeing the conducting of all elections. Republican candidates who have gone on record casting doubt on the result of the 2020 election include Denny Hoskins in Missouri, Dennis Linthicum in Oregon, H. Brooke Paige in Vermont and Kris Warner in West Virginia.

Hoskins and Warner are heavily favored to win given their states' strong Republican leanings. After winning the Missouri Republican primary in August, Hoskins insinuated President Joe Biden was not the true winner of the 2020 election, saying: "[W]e have to ensure that none of the electoral fraud that took place in 2020 and stole the election from President Trump happens here."

According to CNN, Hoskins has also urged supporters to watch convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza's debunked film "2000 Mules," which baselessly suggests that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump via ballot drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan. He is running against Democratic state representative Barbara Phifer in November.

Click here to read CNN's report in its entirety.

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