Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe stated Friday that he’s calling Missouri lawmakers right into a particular session to redraw the state’s U.S. Home districts as a part of a rising nationwide battle between Republicans and Democrats in search of an edge in subsequent 12 months’s congressional elections.
Kehoe made the announcement simply hours after Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed into regulation a brand new congressional voting map designed to assist Republicans achieve 5 extra seats within the 2026 midterm elections. It marked a win for President Trump, who has been urging Republican-led states to reshape district strains to offer the social gathering a greater shot at retaining management of the Home.
Missouri is the third state to pursue an uncommon mid-decade redistricting for partisan benefit. Republican-led Texas took up the duty first however was shortly countered by Democratic-led California, the place Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking voters to approve a map aimed toward giving his social gathering 5 extra seats.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe walks as much as a lectern earlier than a information convention on the governor’s workplace in Jefferson Metropolis in Might 2025.
Jonathan Shorman/The Kansas Metropolis Star/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Pictures
Kehoe scheduled Missouri’s particular session to start Sept. 3. He launched a proposed new map that targets Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas Metropolis-area district by stretching it eastward into rural Republican-leaning areas.
His agenda additionally consists of one other Republican precedence — a proposed constitutional modification that may make it tougher to approve citizen-initiated poll measures, reminiscent of abortion rights and marijuana legalization amendments adopted lately.
Kehoe solid each objects as a protection towards liberal politicians and activists.
“Missouri’s conservative, common sense values must be actually represented in any respect ranges of presidency,” he stated in a press release.
Missouri’s treasurer and lieutenant governor, each Republicans, have additionally stated beforehand that they favor a brand new map.
“We missed the prospect to safe a 7-1 map in 2022, a mistake President Trump rightly calls on us to repair. Missouri’s subsequent congressional map should defend Missouri values and guarantee our representatives in Congress are as conservative because the voters who ship them,” Lt. Gov. David Wasinger stated in a press release in July.
In a Fact Social publish, Mr. Trump praised the transfer, saying it “will give the unimaginable individuals of Missouri the large alternative to elect a further MAGA Republican within the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
Democrats had been fast to specific outrage. Missouri state Home Minority Chief Ashley Aune known as Kehoe a “Trump puppet” making an attempt to “steal a congressional seat for Republicans” and intestine the poll initiative course of.
It “marks the worst risk to the integrity of our state authorities since pro-slavery lawmakers voted for Missouri to affix the Confederacy in 1861,” Aune stated in a press release.
Missouri is represented within the U.S. Home by six Republicans and two Democrats — Cleaver and Rep. Wesley Bell in St. Louis.
Cleaver known as the proposed redistricting an assault on democracy perpetrated by Mr. Trump.
“This try and gerrymander Missouri won’t merely change district strains, it can silence voices. It is going to deny illustration,” Cleaver stated in a press release whereas vowing to not concede the seat.
Missouri Democrats have little means to forestall Republican lawmakers from enacting a brand new map. Not like in Texas, the place Democrats left the state for 2 weeks to delay a vote, Missouri Democrats’ absence wouldn’t stop a quorum for enterprise. And though Democrats might filibuster within the Senate, Republicans might use procedural maneuvers to close that down, as they did earlier this 12 months to move a proposed constitutional modification limiting abortion.
Republicans received a 220-215 Home majority over Democrats in 2024. Democrats would wish to web three seats in subsequent 12 months’s election to take management of the chamber.
Some Missouri Republicans had pushed for a map that might give them a 7-1 edge when redrawing districts after the 2020 census. However the GOP legislative majority finally opted towards it. Some feared the extra aggressive plan might be prone to a authorized problem and will backfire in a poor election 12 months for Republicans by creating extra aggressive districts that might enable Democrats to win three seats.
Republican officers in Florida, Indiana and elsewhere are also contemplating revising their U.S. Home districts, as are Democratic officers in Illinois, Maryland and New York.
In Utah, a decide just lately ordered the Republican-led Legislature to attract new congressional districts after discovering that lawmakers had weakened and ignored an unbiased fee established by voters to forestall partisan gerrymandering. Republicans have received all 4 of Utah’s congressional seats beneath the map permitted by lawmakers in 2021.