Jon Patterson

On paper, Jon Patterson scores 60%. But Patterson isn’t just another vote. As Speaker of the Missouri House, the most powerful position in the General Assembly, he decides which committee gets each bill and runs the chamber where they’re debated. All five attacks on voters’ decisions on this scorecard passed the House under his leadership. He had the power to slow or bury any of them. He stopped none.

His “no” votes don’t hold up under a closer look. Before Missourians approved Amendment 3 in 2024, Patterson promised a Lee’s Summit candidate forum that if it passed, “It will be the law of the land. And we have to go forward as the people decide.” When he took the Speaker’s gavel in January 2025, he pledged to “respect the will of the people.” Three months later, his chamber passed HJR 73 to overturn what voters had just decided. Patterson was the only Republican to vote no, but his complaint was that the rape and incest exception was too narrow, not that the bill overrode voters. He went on to insist that “taking something to the voters another time isn’t really subverting the will of the voters.” In September 2025, he voted against the gerrymandered congressional map because it split his home county. “As a Jackson countian, I couldn’t support it,” he said. Then he let it pass anyway.

That’s Jon Patterson’s pattern. He casts a symbolic “no” that plays well back home, while bills he could have stopped pass through the chamber he controls. A Speaker who votes no but lets the bill pass isn’t defending the will of the people. He’s covering himself. His real record is what he allowed, not just how he voted.