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Coleman was right, and with the legislative session entering its final week, Democrats launched what turned into an epic, 50-hour talk-a-thon starting on Monday, with the intent of once and for all preventing the GOP's candy-laden amendment from advancing.

A Missouri filibuster, mind you, is nothing like the D.C. version, which requires only that a senator file a piece of paperwork. Rather, the Show Me State demands a "talking filibuster," just like in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." And with a tiny Democratic caucus of just nine members, sustaining one is no easy task.

"I mean, it's physical. You're standing at your desk for three hours at least," explained Arthur. "Some have picked up extra shifts and really helped out. It's been an incredible team effort, and I'm really proud of everyone for stepping up and sacrificing sleep, and at times hydration, and talking at all hours of the night."

Members of the Senate's nihilistic Freedom Caucus exhorted their colleagues to break the filibuster by invoking a seldom-used procedural maneuver known as "calling the previous question," which, notably, only requires the support of a simple majority.

But the Republican leadership, which has been engaged in a rancorous row with the Freedom Caucus for years now, ignored those pleas. With the far right determined to burn everything down, GOP leaders have had to rely on Democrats to keep basic government functions operational.

Just a week ago, for instance, Democrats provided the votes for the state's annual budget while the Freedom Caucus stood opposed. Were Republicans to call the previous question, Democrats would have no reason to keep working with them.

So in the face of unshakeable Democratic solidarity and an utter lack of unity on their own side, Senate Republicans backed down on Wednesday afternoon. They instead voted to refer their amendment to a conference committee that would hash out a path forward with the House.

But the House had no interest in talking. The lower chamber had already passed the make-amendments-harder amendment, complete with ballot candy, and wasn't about to change course. As St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum explained, House Republicans believed that voters would never pass a sugar-free version of the amendment.

As a result, on Thursday afternoon, the House rejected the Senate's request for a confab. Democrats, their bodies exhausted but their spirits energized, stood ready to renew their parliamentary marathon, knowing they would only have to sustain it until 6 PM local time on Fridaythe drop-dead end of the legislative session.

That turned out to be unnecessary. While the chamber's leader, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, made one last public attempt early Friday morning to encourage the House to pass a ballot candy-free version of the amendment, the Senate adjourned a short time later.

"There's no way the Senate can get done in 8 hours what it couldn't do in 50," Rowden said just before his party caved.

It was a complete and total victory for Democrats: No version of the GOP's amendment, either with or without candy, will appear on the ballot this year. Remarkably, almost the exact same thing happened a year ago, when a previous Republican plan to restrict direct democracy died on the very last day of the legislative sessionalso due to GOP disarray.

Now the focus will be on November, when voters are very likely to have the chance to reinstate the right to an abortion. Earlier this month, reproductive rights advocates submitted more than double the number of signatures needed to place their amendment on the ballot. A review of those signatures is pending, but few in Missouri doubt they'll hold upwhich is why Republicans were so desperately trying to pass their amendment.