With the redistricting storylines moving across the country, most of the attention has been focused on the big players, primarily Texas and California. Recently, Indiana made news by rejecting the plan to redraw its precincts, the GOP-led state senate voting against the move.
READ MORE: Breaking: Indiana Republicans Betray Trump on Redistricting, Reject Map Favorable to GOP
Meanwhile, Missouri Republicans quietly completed a decision to redistrict, and they were helped along by an unlikely ally.
A basketball-playing golden retriever.
There were plenty of political fireworks in Jefferson City, given that the legislature had recently enacted redrawn Congressional maps in the state back in 2022. Then there was the matter of those bothered by a special session called in September 2025 to address several agenda items, including redistricting. Despite some looking at it as a long-shot effort, the proposal passed. But it is not a done deal.
As has become the expected pathway following a new agenda item, lawsuits have been filed to fight the moves that conventional political practice was incapable of halting. Regarding the newly drawn districts, the primary argument has been that conducting these map changes in the middle of the decade is not valid. The usual process is to undertake this action shortly after the census — i.e., once a decade. Enter the “Air Bud” argument: "Ain't no rule says a dog can't play basketball."
(For the uninitiated, “Air Bud” is a series of family films involving a Golden Retriever who was proficient at sports. He has played football in “Golden Receiver,” baseball in ”Seventh Inning Fetch,” soccer in “World Pup," and volleyball in “Spikes Back,” and there was a straight-to-video entry involving puppies. A reboot of the franchise is set to be released next year.)
The Missouri GOP offered up a similar argument when faced with criticism of their renewed redistricting plan. Lawmakers actually invoked the scene from the film on the State House floor when debating the issue, and it has been a pervasive argument in the confrontations since, including being brought up in interviews, such as with Attorney General Catherine Hanaway. After the new map's passage, during the opposing lawsuit, the athletic hound reference was brought up in the arguments before Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh by plaintiffs' attorney Chuck Hatfield.
Hatfield compared the defense’s argument of the constitution not explicitly banning mid-decade redistricting to the movie "Air Bud." “There's a famous scene where the referee says, ‘Ain't no rule says a dog can't play basketball,’ and they allow the dog to play. It's farcical, and it's kind of ridiculous,” Hatfield said. “We don't do 'Air Bud' rules in Missouri for very good reason, but that's essentially what the argument is from the state.”
ALSO SEE: The Battle for the House Continues, but the GOP Is (Now) Handicapped
Breaking: Supreme Court Allows Texas Redistricting Plan to Stand
It’s good to know that in some circles of politics, important voter issues can hinge on arguments based on dialogue from a movie where a dog can hit a 3-pointer. Honestly, after the bill was approved, I think the Republicans missed a golden PR opportunity. They should have had a dog from that breed trotting into the chambers with a gavel in its mouth before hammering the bill into passage.
Some of you never saw Air Bud and it shows. pic.twitter.com/Zos7JBxRR6
— Jarrod Alberich, The Yard Sale Artist™️🦚 (@yardsaleartist) December 12, 2025
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