Missouri House again tees up host of bills to resurrect the defunct Show-Me state presidential primary

Missouri state Rep. Rudy Veit (R-59th, Wardsville) is at it again.

After unsuccessfully lobbying in 2023 and 2025 for the presidential primary in the Show-Me state to be reinstated after it was eliminated by an omnibus elections bill in 2022, Veit is back with another attempt in 2026. And like its 2025 predecessor, HB 2480 would reestablish the state-run presidential preference election and schedule it for the first Tuesday in March, Super Tuesday.

Veit, however, was not the first to the presidential primary (reinstatement) party in the lead up to the 2026 state legislative session in Jefferson City. Yes, there is legislation that has been pre-filed in the state Senate. But there were two other bills proposed in the lower chamber before Veit got there. Both HB 1871 and HB 2387 have sponsors who have also made past attempts at reviving the presidential primary and both bills mirror the Super Tuesday date Veit's version. Yet, each differs in the other provisions layered into them. Rep. Peggy McGaugh's (R-7th, Carrollton) HB 1871 brings the presidential primary back but also touches on absentee voting, voter ID, the casting provisional ballots and the testing of election equipment in a bill that closely resembles one of the two bills on the Senate side. And Rep. Brad Banderman's (R-119th, St. Clair) HB 2387 looks a lot like Veit's bill, although both differ in how widely each opens the in-person absentee voting window. 

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Noteworthy: Counting the two presidential primary bills in the state Senate, there are now five total bills that will be active during the 2026 legislative session in Missouri. And that is just to start. More could come once business is gaveled in next month. Regardless, that is a number of legislative vehicles that could ultimately resurrect the presidential primary in the Show-Me state. 

Granted, that shotgun method of multiple bills has not proven successful in the time since the Missouri legislature eliminated the state-run presidential primary option in 2022. The five bills proposed in 2023 all failed. The five presidential primary-related bills in 2024 also failed to move. Only Veit's 2025 measure -- one of four total bills during the last session -- managed to pass the chamber in which it was introduced. But it did not move out of committee in the upper chamber in the waning moments of the session. 

Having a number of options, it seems, does not guarantee success. But in 2026, there will again be a number of options before legislators in Jefferson City to bring back a presidential primary to Missouri.

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See also: 

12/10/25: Missouri Senate bills prefiled to reinstate presidential primary

1/28/26: "House committee kills plan to reinstate Missouri presidential primary"

2/3/26: Another one bites the dust: Missouri Senate bill stripped of provision to reestablish a presidential primary

3/5/26: Missouri House Elections Committee reports amended Super Tuesday primary bill "do pass"

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The Annotated 2028 Presidential Primary Calendar

Tracking the evolution of the timeline of delegate selection events that will determine the next presidential nominees

Missouri Senate bills prefiled to reinstate presidential primary

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. 

Missouri state Senator David Gregory (R-15th, St. Louis) has prefiled legislation -- SB 1139 -- in the upper chamber to reestablish the presidential primary election in the Show-Me state. The bill is exactly the same as the legislation the senator filed in February 2025 to bring back the primary that was eliminated by an act of the legislature in 2022. 

Here is an edited FHQ summary of the early 2025 legislation:

[L]egislation has also been introduced in the Missouri state Senate to bring back the state-funded presidential preference election eliminated by the General Assembly in 2022. SB 670, introduced by Senator David Gregory (R-15th, St. Louis), would basically reset conditions to where they were with respect to the parameters of the presidential primary prior to 2022. That is to say that the primary election would revert to a position on the presidential primary calendar following Super Tuesday. 

However, Gregory's SB 670 would schedule the presidential preference election for the second Tuesday in March as opposed to the second Tuesday after the first Monday in March as was the case prior to 2022. 

That is a small difference and would not have any impact on the positioning of any Missouri presidential primary reinstated under this bill for 2028. 

Efforts to reestablish the primary prior to this latest bill have fallen short since 2022, often victims of the logistics of scheduling the presidential primary either concurrent with or in addition to primaries for other offices. Several possible proposed dates have emerged because of that: Super Tuesday, the week after Super Tuesday or the first Tuesday in April (alongside local primaries). None of them have passed muster with a majority of both the Missouri House and Senate. 

Perhaps 2026 will be the year.

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Noteworthy: Gregory's is not the only active legislation in the upper chamber dealing with the reinstatement of a presidential primary election in the Show-Me state. In fact, his was not even the first presidential primary legislation to be pre-filed in the state Senate. That honor belonged to Sen. Sandy Crawford (R-28th, Buffalo), who pre-filed SB 836 on December 1. 

Her bill would not only bring back the presidential primary but it would schedule the election for Super Tuesday, the first Tuesday in March. However, that is but one facet of what is a minibus elections bill touching on absentee voting, voter ID, the casting provisional ballots and the testing of election equipment. 

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See also: 

12/18/25: Missouri House again tees up host of bills to resurrect the defunct Show-Me state presidential primary

1/28/26: "House committee kills plan to reinstate Missouri presidential primary"

2/3/26: Another one bites the dust: Missouri Senate bill stripped of provision to reestablish a presidential primary

3/5/26: Missouri House Elections Committee reports amended Super Tuesday primary bill "do pass"

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The Annotated 2028 Presidential Primary Calendar

Tracking the evolution of the timeline of delegate selection events that will determine the next presidential nominees

"Scoop: S. Carolina Dems enlist influencers for primary fight"

Holly Otterbein at Axios has the latest on South Carolina Democrats ramping up their defense of an early calendar spot:

"South Carolina will host a "creator" briefing alongside the national party's meeting in Los Angeles this week — a reflection of the growing importance of Democrat-friendly influencers as the party seeks to recapture young voters from the GOP.

"It's part of an increasingly hot battle within the party over which states will get the earliest slots on the 2028 primary calendar — and likely have outsized sway in determining who wins the Democratic nomination."

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Noteworthy: One's mileage may vary on just how significant it is that South Carolina Democrats are turning to influencers in the state party's effort to retain an earlier (or the first) spot on the 2028 presidential primary calendar. More notable I would argue is the fact that Palmetto state Democrats are taking this approach in a public way ahead of and concurrent with the upcoming DNC meeting. No decisions will be made on the calendar this week, but South Carolina Democrats are following in the footsteps of their counterparts from New Hampshire who lobbied the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) during the panel's October meeting. 

This activity will likely only escalate between now and when waiver requests to the RBC are made by state parties in the lead up to (and very likely after) the January 16 deadline. 

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Are Democrats really considering putting Michigan's primary first for 2028? 

The early answer appears to be yes. But why when the Great Lakes state is not a perfect fit for the national party's selection criteria?

"Iowa Democrats split on defying DNC in 2028 presidential calendar fight"

The Des Moines Register's Brianne Pfannenstiel has the summary of the Iowa Democratic Party survey on the 2028 caucuses:

"Most Iowa Democrats who responded to a state party survey want to be in the early voting window when it comes to presidential primaries, but they’re split over whether they should defy national Democrats to make it happen.

"The Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee voted Saturday, Dec. 6, to release the results of a survey the party conducted to gather feedback about the future of its presidential nominating caucuses.

"The results offer insight but no clear consensus for a party that is continuing to grapple with the fallout of major shifts in the national presidential nominating calendar."

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Survey of 750 Iowa Democrats (results):

Timing of the Iowa caucuses

Iowa should go first: 

44.7 percent

Iowa should go early: 

20.6 percent

Iowa should go on Super Tuesday (or later): 

12.6 percent

Don't care (where Iowa is on the 2028 calendar): 

22 percent

Following DNC timing rules

Work within the early state selection rules and accept the DNC's decision on timing (even if Iowa is not early): 

51.1 percent

Work within the rules but flout them if Iowa is not granted a waiver for an early contest: 

34.4 percent

Go rogue without regard for the decisions on Iowa's scheduling at the DNC level: 

14.4 percent

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Noteworthy: The state central committee also voted at its December 6 meeting to not surprisingly move forward in the DNC's early state selection process. Those waiver proposals -- state party cases for why their contest should be early in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary calendar -- are due to the Rules and Bylaws Committee by January 16. 

The split results on the two questions above will not necessarily make it any easier for the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) either in the state or with the national party. It is not the united, near-consensus front IDP Chair Rita Hart would otherwise like to present to the DNC and it means that no matter what the state party opts to do for 2028 with respect to the caucuses, that some sizable enough faction is going to be less than happy with the direction the party chooses. 

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Much more on the results to the survey from on the ground in Iowa from John Deeth.

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"New York lawmakers aim to move 2028 primaries up to Super Tuesday"

Edward-Isaac Dovere at CNN has the latest 2028 calendar news from Albany:

"James Skoufis, a New York state senator who previously ran for Democratic National Committee chair, told CNN he will introduce a bill Thursday to move the Empire State’s 2028 presidential primary to Super Tuesday, traditionally the first time a large batch of states votes on the same day and often the day that presidential front-runners separate themselves from the also-rans.

"Skoufis has already lined up what he believes will grow into enough support to pass. His proposal has the potential to reshape the next White House race for Democrats, who would need to put together larger-scale campaigns early, given the size and diversity of New York’s electorate and the expense of the state’s media markets."

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Noteworthy: The New York primary was a Super Tuesday regular from 2000-2008, even moving up to the at-the-time new February Super Tuesday for 2008. When both parties restricted February primaries for 2012, New York legislators moved to the current protocol they have used in every cycle since. Basically that has entailed leaving the primary in February until June-ish of the year prior to a presidential election at which time the legislature (in coordination with both state parties) sets the date and the delegate allocation rules for the cycle. The date of the primary then reverts to February at the end of the presidential election year and the process starts all over again. 

Skoufis' proposed legislation would break from that established post-2008 protocol. 

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New York? On Super Tuesday?

It has happened before and history may repeat itself in 2028. What are the implications?