Another celebrity has filmed a PSA encouraging Missourians to reject Amendment 3, the redistricting ballot measure.
Actress Jennifer Lawrence released a video on behalf of the No on 3 campaign this week, speaking out against the controversial proposal.
“Two separate Missouri courts ruled that the politicians who put Amendment 3 on the ballot broke the law with misleading claims about what was in the fine print in order to deceive you,” Lawrence said. “When politicians’ lies are so bad that they break the law, we have to hold them accountable. This November, please vote no on Amendment 3.”
The “Hunger Games” actress referenced a pair of rulings that resulted in a rewrite of the ballot measure’s language earlier this year. A Cole County Circuit Court judge declared the original language to be “insufficient and unfair” and altered the wording to clarify that the act would effectively repeal 2018’s Clean Missouri. An appellate court further clarified the language in a later judgment.
Lawrence has advocated for and against ballot measures for various states over the years, releasing a similar video encouraging Missourians to vote for Clean Missouri, identified as Amendment 1, on the 2018 ballot.
“Amendment 1 will stop politicians from taking huge gifts from lobbyists,” Lawrence said in 2018. “It will bring more transparency by making records open to the public, and it will help end gerrymandering in the state legislature.
Amendment 3 would ban lobbyist gifts altogether, whereas Clean Missouri reduced the maximum to $5. The amendment would also lower the established cap on donations to state Senate races by $100.
The other major change would be reverting the state’s redistricting process. Clean Missouri established a nonpartisan state demographer position, charged with redrawing the state’s legislative districts based on population data from the 2020 census.
Senate leadership would select the state demographer from a pool of applicants — but they say the process is currently at a standstill, in part due to Amendment 3.
The ballot measure would replace the new position with a pair of bipartisan commissions appointed by the governor, essentially reverting the process to its pre-2018 procedure.
Republicans have argued that Clean Missouri was too broad and voters weren’t quite familiar with everything included in the original measure. Lawmakers said they’ve heard from constituents who wanted ethics reform but not the sweeping changes to redistricting.
Lawrence serves as a board member for the national group RepresentUS alongside other prominent celebrities. The group’s website says it focuses on “ending political corruption, extremism, and gridlock.” The organization has also endorsed the No on 3 campaign.
Talk show host Andy Cohen released a similar PSA earlier this month, saying Amendment 3 would be “a disaster.”
Cameron Gerber studied journalism at Lincoln University. Prior to Lincoln, he earned an associate’s degree from State Fair Community College. Cameron is a native of Eldon, Missouri.
Contact Cameron at cameron@themissouritimes.com.
