JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri residents denounced a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts on Thursday as Republican lawmakers pressed ahead with President Donald Trump’s strategy to bolster Republicans in next year’s congressional elections.
Dozens of people turned out for the first public hearing on a plan that would split up a Kansas City congressional district to give Republicans a shot at winning seven of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats. Republicans already hold six of those seats.
“Kansas City does not want to be divided. We deserve representation and a voice,” said Kristen Ellis Johnson, an attorney from Kansas City who came to the Capitol with her husband and daughter. “You are dividing the urban-dwelling, liberal-leaning population to purposely change those votes.”
Missouri is the third state to join an emerging national battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking advantage in the way U.S. House districts are drawn.
At Trump’s prodding, Texas redrew its U.S. House districts last month to give Republicans a chance at winning five additional seats. California countered with its own revised map aimed at giving Democrats a shot at winning five more U.S. House seats. The California plan still needs voter approval in November.
The stakes are high because, nationally, Democrats need to gain just three seats in the 2026 elections to take control of the House. And, historically, the party of the president usually loses congressional seats in midterm elections, as happened during Trump’s first term in office.
Kansas City district would be merged with rural areas
Missouri’s revised congressional map, as proposed by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, would target a seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by stretching it from Kansas City eastward to encompass rural Republican-leaning areas.
While lawmakers heard public criticism in Jefferson City, some opponents held a press conference in Kansas City near the point where three of the newly proposed districts would intersect. Edgar Palacios, president and CEO of the Latinx Education Collaborative, wore black to the event to decry the redistricting proposal.
“It feels like that, we are at a funeral — a funeral for democracy in Missouri,” Palacios said. “This gerrymander runs directly against everything we fight for. It says loud and clear, `Your voice, your community, your vote does not matter.’”
Ashley Sadowski, a mother whose 7- and 11-year-olds are students in Kansas City Public Schools, said the proposed map could have repercussions beyond who wins elections.
“This means that I would drive from my home in one congressional district to my son’s middle school in another congressional district,” she said. “This does not make sense.”
“Politicians are denying our children the unified voice they deserve in D.C,” Sadowski added.
At the legislative hearing, lobbyist Shannon Cooper said Kansas City government opposes the revised map because having a single person represent most of the city in the U.S. House has helped bring federal jobs and projects to the region.
Some rural residents also said they didn’t want to be combined into the same district as Kansas City.
“If they do that, people in Kansas City will not get their needs met in Congress. It totally dilutes their vote,” Glenda Bainbridge, a resident from rural Odessa, told The Associated Press as she waited her turn to testify against the bill.
Only one person spoke in favor of the new map at the hearing. A leader for Missouri Right to Life said the revised districts could help send another anti-abortion lawmaker to Washington, D.C.
Missouri redistricting process facing legal challenge
State Rep. Dirk Deaton, who’s sponsoring the redistricting legislation, said the proposed map would split fewer counties and cities among multiple districts than the current congressional districts.
“It is an improvement. It is a reform of our current congressional map,” Deaton said.
He didn’t publicly disclose demographic data showing the racial makeup of the newly proposed districts. The Republican lawmaker said he didn’t have data on the estimated partisan composition of voters.
State Rep. Mark Sharp, of Kansas City, the ranking Democrat on the redistricting committee, denounced the plan as a “morally corrupt” attempt to push Cleaver “into an early retirement.”
Cleaver has said he would challenge the new map in court if it passes.
The Missouri NAACP has already filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to halt the special session. It argues that Kehoe’s call for a special session is unconstitutional because no extraordinary circumstance exists to justify it. It also asserts that the Missouri Constitution prohibits redrawing congressional districts without new census data or a ruling invalidating the current districts.
Under Missouri’s current map, only one district has been even moderately competitive. Republican U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner won her suburban St. Louis seat with about 55% of the vote in each of the past two elections. Cleaver won reelection in both 2024 and 2022 with over 60% of the vote, and most of Missouri’s other districts had even larger victory margins.
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Associated Press reporters Heather Hollingsworth and Nicholas Ingram contributed from Kansas City, Missouri.
