Marc Cox's 2026 Missouri Voter Guide

Missouri voters face crucial decisions at the ballot box on 5 statewide issues – decisions that could reshape the future of a bright RED State. I hope you read and understand what each of these ballot propositions and amendments would do, but if not, here are the cliff notes: YES on every statewide issue EXCEPT A-6. In St. Louis County, NO on Prop S.

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MARC COX'S 2026 MISSOURI VOTER GUIDE NOVEMBER 3RD GENERAL ELECTION

PROP A: Redistricting Map: YES

STATEWIDE • NOVEMBER 3 GENERAL

Missouri is a deep red State. Fairly drawn, our Congressional map would be 8-0. But democrat operatives hate that, and have tried every legal maneuver in the book so far to keep it at 6 Republicans, 2 Democrats. A YES vote adopts the 7-1 legislative map passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Kehoe for the 2028 and 2030 elections. If you need a visual, look up the current map. Yes, those postage-stamp size districts in CD-1 and CD-5 are what’s called racial gerrymandering. They are drawn to ensure that democrats win, specifically black democrats. The Supreme Court has ruled racial gerrymandering unconstitutional. Because of that, I think we will eventually have an 8-0 map. But for this election, 7-1 is the best we can do. YES ON PROP A.

Official Ballot Language:

Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled “House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),” which repeals Missouri’s existing congressional plan, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more counties intact?

AMENDMENT 3: Protect Women and Babies: YES

STATEWIDE • NOVEMBER 3 GENERAL

This is our chance to correct a major error added to our Constitution in 2024. Missouri currently has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world, protecting abortion through “fetal viability” – which means right up until the day of birth. Which means you can save thousands of innocent lives each year by voting YES on 3. It does not “end” abortion, as many of us would prefer. But it limits it, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Out of state opponents like Mike Bloomberg and George Soros are spending tens of millions of dollars to defeat this, so you know a YES vote is correct. It also bans gender transition procedures for minors. YES ON 3!

Official Ballot Language:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: Repeal the 2024 voter-approved Amendment providing reproductive healthcare rights, including abortion through fetal viability; Allow abortions for rape and incest (under twelve-weeks’ gestation), emergencies, and fetal anomalies; Allow legislation regulating abortion; Ensure parental consent for minors’ abortions; Prohibit gender transition procedures for minors?”

AMENDMENT 6: The Initiative Petition Lockbox: NO

STATEWIDE • NOVEMBER 3 GENERAL

This is the one statewide issue where I’m asking you to vote NO, and I need you to hear me on it, because the branding sounds harmless. “Respect Missouri Voters.” “Protect the initiative process.” You know better. The initiative petition process in Missouri needs to be reformed – you’ve heard me say it for years. Out-of-state billionaires renting our ballot, paid signature crews, amendments written on the coasts and passed by running up the score in two metro areas. Amendment 6 doesn’t fix any of that. It makes fixing it impossible.

Read the fine print. Amendment 6 declares the petition process a “fundamental right,” hands courts the power to rewrite ballot summaries through lawsuits, and bars your elected legislature from ever tightening the rules on how initiatives work. Worst of all, once a citizen initiative passes, the legislature couldn’t change or repeal it without an 80% vote of both chambers. Eighty percent. Nothing gets 80% in Jefferson City. That means the next Bloomberg-funded amendment that squeaks by with 50%-plus-one is locked into our constitution and our laws forever, and the people you elected could never again challenge it. Even a legislature-led fix that resembles anything voters once rejected would need that same impossible 80%.

The group behind this got organized after lawmakers dared to adjust a law the initiative crowd bought and paid for. They want a one-way door – easy for their money to push things in, impossible for your representatives to ever walk them back. NO ON 6.

Official Ballot Language:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: expand the initiative and referendum petition process by making it a fundamental right; allow courts to revise ballot summaries through lawsuits; prohibit the legislature from weakening initiative or referendum powers; prohibit the legislature from changing or repealing laws enacted through the initiative process, or passing laws similar to those rejected by referendum, without approval from at least 80% of both chambers; and preserve existing majority vote and signature requirements for initiative and referendum petitions?”

AMENDMENT 7: Show Me Prosperity Fund: YES

STATEWIDE • NOVEMBER 3 GENERAL

This one is complicated, but important. A-5 failed in August, and you know I supported ending the state income tax. This is a much different approach, using one-time state investment to create a self-sustaining endowment fund that will be used – eventually – to reduce and eliminate income taxes in Missouri. Sen. Adam Schnelting of St. Charles is the sponsor, and I’ll give him credit for thinking past the next budget cycle after August’s loss.

Here’s how it works. The state builds a permanent endowment – the Show-Me Prosperity Fund – seeded by appropriations, gifts and donations, with the state treasurer investing it in index funds that track the S&P 500. The principal never gets spent, and the legislature is constitutionally barred from raiding or diverting it. Spending out of the fund is capped at 3% a year of its average value over the previous five years, and no money flows out at all until the treasurer certifies that investment earnings can actually replace the taxes they’re meant to eliminate.

The knock on Amendment 7 is the timeline. Critics say the fund would need a couple hundred billion dollars before it could carry the state’s whole budget, and that could take generations. Maybe so. It also costs you nothing today, and every dollar of growth moves Missouri closer to paying the state’s bills out of investment earnings instead of your paycheck. We didn’t kill the income tax in one shot in August. This opens a second front, and I’m for it. YES ON 7.

Official Ballot Language:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to establish a permanent public endowment fund to support state government instead of taxing Missouri residents, prohibit the General Assembly from appropriating or diverting the fund, and eliminate state-imposed taxes once the fund generates sufficient revenue to replace them?”

AMENDMENT 8: Elect Your Sheriff: YES

STATEWIDE • NOVEMBER 3 GENERAL

This one’s simple, and it runs on the same principle I gave you in August with the Jackson County assessor fight – if somebody holds power over you, you should hold the power to hire and fire them at the ballot box. Amendment 8 writes into the constitution your right to elect your county sheriff, and it protects the sheriff you elected from being run out of office by courthouse politics. Under this amendment, an elected sheriff can only be removed by a writ of quo warranto – a formal court proceeding brought by the Attorney General – instead of whatever pressure campaign the local political class dreams up when a sheriff enforces laws they’d rather ignore.

The amendment also recognizes the office of sheriff as part of the administration of justice, which is exactly what it is. Your sheriff is the one law enforcement officer you hire directly, and Amendment 8 keeps it that way. Sen. Jill Carter carried this through the legislature with big majorities in both chambers. It supports law enforcement and it supports your vote. YES ON 8.

Official Ballot Language:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to support law enforcement by preserving the right of citizens to elect a county sheriff, prohibiting the removal of a county sheriff except by a writ of quo warranto, and recognizing the office of sheriff as part of the administration of justice?”

ST. LOUIS COUNTY PROP S: Senior Services Property Tax: NO

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • NOVEMBER 3 GENERAL

I told you in August, during the Prop U fight, that St. Louis County had more tax increases already in the pipeline – including a property tax hike for senior services on the November ballot. Here it is. Prop S is a brand-new property tax of 5 cents per $100 of assessed value, roughly $15 million a year, to create a “Senior Citizens Service Fund” handed out as grants by a seven-member board appointed by county government.

Let me head off the angry emails. I’m for seniors, and helping older folks stay independent and in their homes is a fine goal. But we already have the senior property tax freeze in effect. Taking more money from their neighbors and handing that money to an appointed board to pass out as grants, with zero accountability to voters, is how slush funds get born. County voters saw this exact proposal in 2016 and said no. Nothing about the county’s money management since then has earned a different answer. Make St. Louis County live within its means. Vote NO on Prop S.

MARC COX'S 2026 MISSOURI VOTER GUIDE NOVEMBER 3RD GENERAL ELECTION www.audacy.com

ST. LOUIS COUNTY EXECUTIVE: DENNIS HANCOCK

St. Louis County, this race decides whether anything else on this ballot matters. Everything I said about Prop U in August and Prop S above traces back to the same county building – a government that spends first, budgets never, and then comes back to you for more. The crew that created the county’s budget disaster should not get four more years to finish the job.

Dennis Hancock has my endorsement. He’ll walk into that building with one mandate – balance the checkbook – and you and I will be watching right here every morning to make sure he does. Vote HANCOCK for County Executive.

CANDIDATE ENDORSEMENTS NOVEMBER 3RD:

• 1st Congressional District: PAUL BERRY
  
• 2nd Congressional District: ANN WAGNER
  
• 3rd Congressional District: Dr. BOB ONDER
  
• 8th Congressional District: JASON SMITH
  
• St. Louis County Executive: DENNIS HANCOCK
  
• St. Charles County Executive: STEVE EHLMANN
  
• State Senate Dist. 2: NICK SCHROER
• State Senate Dist. 26: BEN BROWN

JUDGE RETENTION: No on Justice Paul Wilson

The Missouri Judiciary is a mess, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. The “Missouri Plan” is screwing up our state, and every other state that adopted it years ago. Although it created a “panel” of 7 people to evaluate candidates, 3 of those votes always come from the very liberal Missouri Bar Association, and a fourth come from the sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. So the Governor – Republican or Democrat – always has 3 liberal candidates to choose from. The legislature needs to address this this year. In the meantime, you can send a message to this Supreme Court by voting NO on retaining Paul Wilson. He authored the 4-3 opinion that placed Amendment 3 on the ballot back in 2024, despite a clear violation of the single subject rule. He is to thank for this atrocity, so let’s return the favor and send him home. No on Supreme Court Judge Paul Wilson.

And no, I do not have a good answer on how you can find out about other judges. The only group offering an opinion on retention is the Missouri Bar, and historically they recommend nearly 100% for retention. Because why not? They choose the judges to begin with.