Missouri’s state Legislature has passed a plan to redraw the state’s congressional map and turn Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s district into a Republican-leaning seat, the latest move in a nationwide redistricting fight aimed at shifting the balance of power in Washington in next year’s midterm elections.
Just weeks after Texas successfully passed maps aimed at netting Republicans up to five more congressional districts, Missouri’s state House and Senate convened in a special session to redraw the lines to benefit the GOP. They had far less room to grow than Texas Republicans did, given that six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats are already represented by Republicans.
But the new map will carve up Cleaver’s district in the Kansas City area in the hopes of creating one new red seat there.
In between Texas and Missouri’s moves, California Democrats voted to place a measure before voters this November to temporarily override the state’s independent redistricting commission and draw new maps that could result in a gain of five Democratic seats.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, is expected to sign the new map into law. Kehoe called the special session as President Donald Trump urges Republican-led states to embark on rare mid-decade redraws aimed at shoring up his party’s majority in the House.
Trump on Friday thanked Missouri, and said he was hopeful the redistricting effort would give Republicans one more seat in Congress.
“Congratulations to Governor Mike Kehoe, Senate President Pro Tempore Cindy O’Laughlin, Senate Majority Floor Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins, Representative Dirk Deaton, and many other Patriotic Legislators, for your FANTASTIC work on this new Map, which will help send an additional MAGA Republican to Congress in the 2026 Midterm Elections,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The new Missouri maps passed with little legislative opposition. While Democrats and outside groups vehemently opposed the plan and launched protests in Jefferson City this week, they didn’t have the numbers to jeopardize the GOP plans, and the bill quickly sped through both chambers this week.
Republican state Rep. Dirk Deaton, who sponsored the House bill to redraw the lines, told NBC News in an interview when it passed that he believed the maps will “ultimately result in Missouri values being reflected and represented in Washington, D.C. — and we know Missouri is a very conservative state.”
Asked why state Republicans pushed for this outside of the normal decennial redistricting cycle and if the president’s urging prompted the move, Deaton replied that Trump’s “leadership certainly is helpful” and that “we have to do it every 10 years, but if we can improve on our work, we should do that.”
State Sen. Brad Hudson, a Republican pushing the bill in the upper chamber, noted that mid-decade redistricting “is not something that happens all the time,” he told NBC News. “It’s important to note that this is something that we can do. It is certainly within our power.”
Republicans didn’t support the measure unilaterally, with a handful of GOP legislators voting against the bill. That included the state House speaker, Jonathan Patterson, who told Kansas City NBC affiliate KSHB that he didn’t support how the plan carved up the city’s county, Jackson County, into districts “represented by three different congresspeople.”
State Rep. Bryant Wolfin, a Republican whose district is in the southeastern part of the state, also voted against it, blasting the move on the floor as a partisan powergrab that runs afoul of conservative values.
“There’s nothing conservative about using our supermajority to grab more power,” he said.
Throughout the debate, Democrats pilloried their Republican colleagues, accusing them of following Trump’s orders to pad his margin for error in next year’s midterms and of diluting the power of Black voters in Kansas City. During the debate on the bill, Democrats took to the microphones to share stories about the legacy of racism and segregation in 20th Century Kansas City, arguing that the new lines would hurt the political power of the Black community in the city.
“Missouri values, what a disingenuous notion,” Democratic state House Minority Leader Ashley Aune said, calling the redistricting plan a scheme led by Trump, who she said “knows the only way he can win is to cheat.”
Cleaver traveled to the state Senate to testify against the plan this week, also evoking the legacy of segregation in the city decades ago, adding that “If you fight fire with fire long enough all you’re going to have left is ashes.”
Tensions over the plan were clear during the legislative debate.
“I’m a little tired of hearing about Donald Trump,” GOP state Rep. Jim Murphy said Tuesday, adding: “We’re protecting our democracy by keeping it away from Democrats in the House.
The push for new maps also drew more than a thousand protesters, who rallied inside the state capitol Wednesday in opposition to the legislation.
Terrance Wise traveled from Kansas City to protest the map, which he said makes him feel as if his voice is being taken away.
“We have differences when we talk about rural Missouri and Kansas City where I live,” Wise told NBC News after speaking at the rally, adding “we all want the same thing, but we have different needs, and we need different representation.”
Missouri is the third state to pass legislation this year supporting a rare, mid-cycle redistricting. But other states, like Indiana, are considering similar moves in the coming weeks.
Opponents of the new map in Missouri have already filed a lawsuit challenging the lines, and they have discussed trying to build support for a citizen referendum that would seek to reject the map in a statewide vote.
