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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