Missouri governor signs Trump-backed plan aimed at helping Republicans
win another US House seat
[September 29, 2025]
By DAVID A. LIEB
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a new U.S.
House map into law Sunday as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to
try to hold on to a narrow Republican majority in next year’s
congressional election.
Kehoe’s signature puts the revised districts into state law with a goal
of helping Republicans win one additional seat. But it may not be the
final action. Opponents are pursuing a referendum petition that, if
successful, would force a statewide vote on the new map. They also have
brought several lawsuits against it.
U.S. House districts were redrawn across the country after the 2020
census to account for population changes. But Missouri is the third
state this year to try to redraw its districts for partisan advantage, a
process known as gerrymandering.
Republican lawmakers in Texas passed a new U.S. House map last month
aimed at helping their party win five additional seats. Democratic
lawmakers in California countered with their own redistricting plan
aimed at winning five more seats, though it still needs voter approval.
Other states also are considering redistricting.
Each seat could be critical, because Democrats need to gain just three
seats to win control of the House, which would allow them to obstruct
Trump’s agenda and launch investigations into him. Trump is trying to
stave off a historic trend in which the president’s party typically
loses seats in midterm elections.
Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats. The
new map targets a seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by
shaving off portions of his Kansas City district and stretching the rest
of it into Republican-heavy rural areas. It reduces the number of Black
and minority residents in Cleaver’s district, which he has represented
for two decades after serving as Kansas City’s first Black mayor.
Cleaver has denounced the redistricting plan for using Kansas City’s
Troost Avenue — a street that has long segregated Black and white
residents — as one of the dividing lines for the new districts.
Kehoe has defended the new map as a means of boosting Missouri’s
“conservative, common-sense values” in the nation’s capital.
“Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our values,
across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of
the congressional representation of states like New York, California,
and Illinois. We believe this map best represents Missourians, and I
appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our
congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my
desk,” Kehoe said in a statement.
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The Missouri State Capitol building is seen Sept. 11, 2024 in
Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)
Kehoe signed the new law during an event that was closed to the
public.
Opponents are gathering petition signatures seeking to force a
statewide referendum on the new map. They have until Dec. 11 to
submit around 110,000 valid signatures, which would put the map on
hold until a public vote can occur sometime next year.
Meanwhile, opponents also are pursuing a variety of legal
challenges. Several lawsuits by voters, including a new one
announced Sunday by a Democratic-affilated group, contend mid-decade
redistricting isn’t allowed under Missouri’s constitution.
“It was not prompted by the law or a court order; it was the result
of Republican lawmakers in Missouri following partisan directives
from politicians in Washington, D.C.,” said Marina Jenkins,
executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, a
nonprofit affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting
Committee.
A previously filed lawsuit by the NAACP contends no “extraordinary
occasion” existed for Kehoe to call lawmakers into session for
redistricting.
A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union also asserts that
the new Kansas City area districts violate state constitutional
requirements to be compact and contain equal populations. It notes
that the redistricting legislation lists a “KC 811” voting precinct
in both the fourth and fifth congressional districts, which it
asserts is grounds to invalidate the new map.
But Kehoe’s office said there is no error. It said other government
agencies had assigned the same name to two distinct voting
locations.
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Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to
this report.
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