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Missourians voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to reject a proposed right-to-work law, derailing a decades-long push by Republicans and business groups to enact a law reviled by labor unions.
With more than two-thirds of precincts reporting, right to work was losing 65 percent to 35 percent. If that tally holds, it would be more lopsided than the vote in 1978, the last time Missourians rejected a right-to-work law.
Opponents say the real motivation is political: Republicans want to weaken a political nemesis by allowing some workers to benefit from the contracts that labor unions negotiate without having to contribute to covering the costs of those negotiations.
After years of trying and failing, Republicans celebrated last year when former Gov. Eric Greitens signed legislation making Missouri the country’s 28th right-to-work state.
Yet the G.O.P. celebration was short-lived.
Unions quickly collected more than 300,000 signatures to place right to work on the 2018 ballot. Then they banded together to raise more than $16 million to repeal it — vastly outspending proponents in the months leading up to the vote.
Whether Republicans would consider another run at right to work after Tuesday’s defeat at the polls is unclear.