Missouri’s governor calls special session to redraw congressional map
Aug. 30 (UPI) — Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Kehow ordered a special legislative session to redraw the congressional map for its eight U.S. House seats, mirroring efforts by other governors to gain seats for their parties in the 2026 midterms.
Redistricting may face a legal challenge because the state constitution requires new borders to be determined after new census numbers come out at the beginning of each decade, with the next scheduled for 2030.
On Friday, Kehow said the state General Assembly will return to the capital in Jefferson City on Wednesday to look at changing the maps. There are now six Republicans and two Democrats representing Missouri.
Both chambers hold super-majorities. The Missouri Senate will consider the map during its annual veto session on Sept. 10.
“Today, I am calling on the General Assembly to take action on congressional redistricting and initiative petition reform to ensure our districts and Constitution truly put Missouri values first,” Kehoe said in a statement.
Kehow unveiled the Missouri First Map, which he said is “a more compact, contiguous proposed map that was drawn and created by his team in Missouri to be considered by the General Assembly.”
The new map, he said, splits fewer counties and municipalities than the current map. It preserves two congressional districts as currently drawn, and retains every current member in their proposed districts.
“Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our Missouri values, across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of the extreme Left representation of New York, California and Illinois,” Kehoe said. “Missouri’s conservative, common-sense values should be truly represented at all levels of government, and the Missouri First Map delivers just that.”
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that “passage of a new, much fairer, and much improved, Congressional Map, that will give the incredible people of Missouri the tremendous opportunity to elect an additional MAGA Republican in the2026 Midterm Elections – A HUGE VICTORY for our America First Agenda, not just in the ‘Show-Me State,’ but across our Nation.”
Trump, who noted he decisively won three primaries and three presidential elections, added “I call on all of my Republican friends in the Missouri Legislature to work as fast as they can to get this new Congressional Map, AS IS, to Governor Mike Kehoe’s desk, ASAP.”
In his Friday video, Kehoe said: “I appreciate President Donald Trump for raising the level of conversation on this matter, because his leadership on this nationally underscores just how important this moment is for Missouri.”
The proposed map significantly redraws the 5th congressional district, which is represented by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2004. It includes a much larger portion of the state, meaning from the western portion of the state to the eastern edge.
The district currently covers Kansas City and its surrounding areas, as well as a portion of Independence. The district is home to Harry S. Truman, a Democrat who was U.S. president from 1945-1953.
“President Trump’s unprecedented directive to redraw our maps in the middle of the decade and without an updated census is not an act of democracy — it is an unconstitutional attack against it,” Cleaver, the first Black mayor of Kansas City, said in a statement. “This attempt to gerrymander Missouri will not simply change district lines, it will silence voices.”
He added Democrats wouldn’t “concede” if the map redrawing moves forward.
“The people of the Fifth District and I will fight relentlessly to ensure Missouri never becomes an antidemocratic state, where politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives. In the courts and at the ballot box, we will demand that the rule of law is upheld, our voices are heard, and democracy prevails.”
He noted roughly 40% of Missourians cast their ballots for Democratic candidates last year but hold only 25% of the House seats.
The other House Democrat serving the state is Wesley Bell, elected for his first term in November, and serving in the 1st Congressional District covering St. Louis. He was the first Black prosecutor in St. Louis County.
The Missouri Constitution calls for the legislature to draw new congressional districts every 10 years after new U.S. census numbers are reported. Missouri officials weighed the map’s legality last week, according to emails obtained by the Kansas City Star.
“The plain language of the Missouri Constitution and the Missouri Supreme Court’s precedent make clear that mid-cycle congressional redistricting is prohibited,” attorneys Chuck Hatfield and Alix Cossette, two longtime Democratic attorneys, wrote in a memo obtained by the Missouri Independent. “Any attempt to do so will draw a substantial legal challenge, which will likely succeed and invalidate any map adopted by the General Assembly.”
Other states
In the U.S. House, Republicans currently hold a 219-212 advantage, which includes vacancies from the deaths of three Democrats and one GOP member who resigned.
On Friday, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation for a new congressional map in an attempt to add five GOP seats in the U.S. House, which now includes 25 of 38 controlled by GOP.
In California, the new map could add five seats for Democrats, who hold a 43-9 edge. But unlike in Texas, voters in November must approve the change. California’s borders are drawn by a nonpartisan group and new legislation left it up to a referendum.
Republican-dominant legislatures in Ohio, Indiana and Florida may redraw congressional borders before the 2026 midterm elections.
Earlier this week, some Indiana legislators visited the White House to discuss redistricting.
States traditionally redo their borders at the start of each decade but in Ohio, under state law, a new congressional map must be approved by November 30. The previous map lacked bipartisan support.
Other states with a Democratic majority, including Illinois, New York, Maryland and Oregon, are also considering changing the borders.
Republican legislatures control 28 of the 50 states with 18 by Democrats and four chambers divided politically.
