Missouri Republicans Advance Redistricting Effort to Oust Rep. Cleaver

Missouri Democrat Representative Emanuel Cleaver talks about the political and historic significance of redistricting efforts targeting his district and the status of negotiations between lawmakers as the government gets closer to a shutdown.

Missouri’s Republican-dominated legislature gave final approval to new congressional lines endorsed by President Donald Trump and designed to wrest a House seat from Democrats in the 2026 election.

The Missouri Senate voted 21-11, mostly along party lines, for a map that clearly advantages Republicans in seven of eight House districts and splinters the compact, Democratic-leaning Kansas City constituency of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, one of two Democrats in Missouri’s delegation to the 119th Congress.

The Missouri House passed the map, which Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) proposed and would sign into law. Dissenting Republicans included Speaker Jonathan Patterson, who objected to how the map fractured the Kansas City region where he lives.

The White House has prodded Missouri and other Republican-led state governments to enact more GOP-friendly replacement maps as the party prepares to protect its tissue-thin House majority through the final two years of Trump’s presidency. Republicans have a 219-213 House edge and the governing party has lost House seats in 18 of 20 midterm elections held since the end of World War II.

Missouri's Republican-led House turned aside Democratic objections Tuesday and passed a plan backed by President Donald Trump to redraw the state's congressional districts so that Republicans could win an additional seat in the closely divided chamber.

The rare mid-decade redistricting plan, which now heads to the state Senate, is aimed at bolstering Republicans' national prospects in next year’s U.S. House elections, where Democrats need to gain just three seats to take control. By reshaping a Democratic-held Kansas City district, Republicans could win seven of Missouri's eight congressional seats.

Missouri's effort comes after a similar move by Republican-led Texas and a counter-offensive in Democratic-led California, which still needs voter approval. Other states, including Republican-led Indiana and Florida and Democratic-led Maryland and New York, could follow with their own revisions in what's emerging as a national redistricting battle.

U.S. House districts were redrawn across the country after the 2020 census to account for population changes. The current redistricting push is being done for partisan advantage, a process known as gerrymandering.

“This is cheating,” said state Rep. Yolonda Fountain Henderson, one of many Democrats who denounced the measure. "It’s like when President Trump says, we jump.”

Trump wants to retain a congressional majority to advance his agenda. But historically, the party opposing the president has gained seats in the midterm elections, as Democrats did during Trump's first term and then proceeded to impeach him.

Missouri lawmakers are meeting in a two-prong special session called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.

The House on Tuesday also passed a measure that — if approved by the Senate and statewide voters — would make it harder to pass citizen-led initiatives amending the state constitution by requiring a majority vote from each congressional district instead of a simple statewide majority. That comes after Missouri's initiative process has been used in recent years to win voter approval of amendments on abortion rights, marijuana legalization and Medicaid expansion.

In a statement after the House votes, Kehoe thanked Republicans for "ensuring that the values of Missourians are represented clearly and effectively.”

Revised Missouri map could help Republicans gain a House seat

Republicans already hold six of Missouri's eight U.S. House seats, with Democrats representing districts in Kansas City and St. Louis.

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