In August, I wrote a four-part series looking at the redistricting fights breaking out across the United States. This mid-decade redistricting push, the Redistricting Wars as they have been dubbed, started when Donald Trump began pushing Republicans to redraw Congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterms. Facing polling that shows his increasing unpopularity and the likelihood of Democrats winning the House back, Trump has pushed to rig the game to circumvent the people’s will. I discussed this far more in Part 2 of my series.
In the above issue, which mostly centered on Texas’ new Congressional map, I also highlighted the state of Missouri. At the time of writing Part 2, Missouri seemed very likely to remap its Congressional districts as well, though we didn’t have a specific plan released yet.
As of this writing, we not only have a Missouri redistricting plan, the map has been passed and signed into law. The plan enacted takes the state from 2 Democratic seats to 1, cracking Kansas City voters. In this article, I want to discuss the map, but also how Republican leaders justified their plan; openly admitting they considered party loyalty more important than fair elections.
The Original Congressional Map
Before diving into the new map, it's worth taking a brief moment to look at the districts originally passed in 2022. That map, seen below, is what is being replaced with this new redistricting push.
The map in question has two seats anchored in St. Louis and Kansas City, both heavily Democratic pockets in an increasingly Republican state. Missouri was once much more competitive, with Obama only losing the state by 4,000 votes in 2008. However, that marked the last close Presidential Race in Missouri, and the state has not elected a Democrat statewide since 2018.
Democratic strength in Missouri has largely been reduced to the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, with small pockets dotted across the state in other cities. When it comes to Congressional redistricting in Missouri, the only partisan issue at hand is how these two major urban centers are handled. This debate did initially emerge in 2022.
The Debate from from 2022
The map that passed in 2022 was largely a “Status Quo” map; preserving the partisan balance of the delegation already in place. However, it did have major points of contention, both from the left and the right. The original 2012 map, which needed to be updated, is seen below, including how the districts voted in the 2020 Presidential Election. This was the data that lawmakers were working with as they approached 2022 redistricting.
In addition to the two democrat-heavy seats based in Kansas City and St. Louis (with the old 5th stretching further out) - the 2nd district, based on the suburbs of St. Louis, was becoming increasingly competitive. In 2020, the 2nd district only backed Trump by a few hundred votes. This marked a notable shift in the district over the last decade.
Republican Incumbent Ann Wagner never faced a tough re-election until 2018. That year she managed re-election by just 4%. In 2020 she faired stronger, winning by 6%. However, this was far from the 15+ point re-elections of the past. Most expected the Republicans to “shore up” her district and make it redder. However, that was not the only subject of debate.
Conservative Revolt
When redistricting in Missouri initially got going, there was a great deal of pressing from conservative groups to push eliminating the Democratic-friendly Kansas City district. Several Republican lawmakers at the time stressed that with a majority in both legislative chambers and a Republican Governor, they had no reason to maintain the partisan status quo.
Such a move to eliminate the 5th as a Kansas City based seat would draw out Black Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. A Methodist Minister, Cleaver was elected to Congress in 2004. While his district is not majority-Black, it unites the Black community of Kansas City, as well as a large number of liberal white city voters.
While conservative lawmakers wanted to push for a “7-1 map” - as such a gerrymander was referenced, Republican leadership was cold to the idea; instead preferring to focus on shoring-up the 2nd and maintaining the status quo. A 7-1 plan was introduced in the Missouri House, which can be seen here. However, this plan was voted DOWN in that same chamber, despite Republican control. See more on that back and forth here.
The State House was the first to pass a status quo 6-2 map, with the 2nd also getting redder, but it was conservative State Senators who really led the charge on pushing a gerrymander. In this argument, lawmakers did not hide their partisan reasoning.
“Why would a supermajority of Republicans in the House actually vote on a map that will increase support for the Joe Biden agenda in Washington D.C.?” said state Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring. “Why would they do that? I mean, that just strikes me as bizarre.”
No regard is given for the desires of voters in Kansas City here, its purely about the outcome of the US House makeup. This again, and I cannot stress this enough, shows a complete lack of respective for popular rule or representative democracy.
State Senator Bon Onder, who now sits in Congress and I will be talking about further on in this article, was equally maligning of Republicans who would support the 6-2 map
“We have lemmings ready to run over the side of the cliff to their own destruction. And I don’t know whose thinking and whose interests are being served by this map. But I know for sure it’s not the people of the state of Missouri.”
The debate in the Senate was extremely heated and contentious. The Conservative Caucus led a filibuster of ALL actions in the chamber to protest the failure to pass a 7-1 gerrymander. The Conservative Caucus accused Republicans that refused to back a 7-1 map of supporting what they called “The Nancy Pelosi Map” and invoked Christianity to justify their decision. Basically, because, in their mind, democrats are “godless” - then a true Christian must do everything they can do keep them out of power.
You can read much more about far-right politicians invoking Christianity to justify gerrymandering plans in this piece below, which looks at 2022 and 2025 debates.
As a devote Christian, I can assure you that anyone making arguments that God wants them to gerrymander are brazenly breaking the 3rd commandment (taking the Lord’s name in vain) and are either completely insane or just charlatans who don’t actually believe.
For an example of the insanity of this Christian Nationalism, at a rally in 2022, Missouri State Representative Sarah Walsh laid out the reasoning for backing such a 7-1 plan. She said a such a plan was needed to defeat the…
“radical, America-hating, God-hating socialists in Washington, D.C.,” who “want to make government our god.”
Oooook then. Btw if you wanna know what kind of nutjob Walsh is. She and her husband refused to get vaccinated for COVID, and in August of 2021 (well after vaccines were out) - they both got COVID and her husband died from it.
Luckily there were sane people within the Republican caucus at this time in Missouri. This religious insanity was countered by Republican State Senator Sandy Crawford, who poignantly said…
“Voting for a 7-1 map doesn’t get you to heaven. Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior does,”
Btw, worth reminding everyone that Congressman Cleaver, the representative being targeted for gerrymandering, is a Methodist Minister.
A vote in the State Senate for a 7-1 map failed by a spectacular 8 YES to 24 NO votes. However, the filibuster continued. At one point things became so heated that two Republican State Senators almost came to blows! The argument lasted for months, with major debates taking place in February of 2022 and nothing being passed through the month of April.
Finally, in May, everything came to a head. With the House passing a modified 6-2 plan, the Senate leadership pushed forward and invoked rarely-used rule to force a vote on the bill. The move, not used since 1979, forced a vote and was very much a signal that Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden was sick of the delays. The Senate then passed the plan 22-11; with 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats voting no. The Conservatives were furious, with Senator Onder stating “The process stinks to high heaven.”
The final plan maintained the Kansas City Democratic seats. Ann Wagern’s 2nd, did however, get redder. Her seat changed from a 0.1% Trump seat to a district that Trump would have won by 8%. In this it was a modest Republican gerrymander, just not the extreme gerrymander the Conservative caucus wanted.
Those conservatives would get their way in 2025, however.
The 2025 Remap Process
In the article examining the Texas redistricting process, published back in late August, I noted that Missouri was very likely to be the next state to remap its lines. While the 2022 debate had led to a conservative defeat, dynamics were very different with Trump making direct appeals over the matter. The Republican Governor, Mike Kehoe, who was elected in 2024 and did not oversee the 2022 debate, laid out his argument for remapping…..
“My personal preference is just keep Speaker (Mike) Johnson in control in D.C. His values align much better with Missourians than Congressman (Hakeem) Jeffries does, and I think that would be the goal.”
AGAIN, just to stress, this is the Governor of the state saying that cracking Kansas City and depriving its residents of a unified voice is an acceptable move in the name of who is Speaker of the House.
This line of reasoning was common throughout the process.
Conservatives Justify their Remap
There was no shortage of Republican activists and politicians justifying a remap due to issues of “morality” or politics. A key pusher of the redistricting drive was Congressman Bob Onder. If you recall, Onder was a State Senator during the 2022 process and a major figure in the far-right revolt. In 2024, he won election to the 3rd Congressional district, and now used his weight in DC to push on the matter.
“Politics is part of the process of drawing political maps. Always has been, always will be. And, I think the real question is whether Missouri Republicans are going to step up to the plate and fight for what we believe in, as opposed to ceding control of Congress to progressive Democrats.”
Congressman Onder, it cannot be stressed enough, sees the political back and forth as some sort of insane holy war. A day or so after Charlie Kirk was horrifically killed in Utah, Onder went to the House floor. While on the floor of the United States of Representatives, he did not call for unity or calm, but rather appealed to blood and violence. He called “the left” - the entire left - evil.
“Everything has changed, if we didn’t know it already there is no longer any middle ground. Some on the American left are undoubtedly well-meaning people but their ideology is pure evil,”
“They hate the good, the truth and the beautiful and embrace the evil, the false and the ugly. And they, literally, will kill those with whom they disagree
I would like to point out that when Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman was assassinated by a far-right gunman back in June, no Democratic congress-member went to the House floor and called “the right” evil. In fact, Republicans, in their desire to pretend the left is inherently violent, have largely ignored that tragedy in Minnesota, but you can read more about it below. I wrote this for the day after the special election was held to fill the representative’s seat.
I include Onder’s statements regarding Kirk and violence to highlight how the far-right has justified their gerrymandering push. Its ok to rig lines because the other side is “evil” and hence free and fair elections is not important.
Religion again was brought up to justify the redistricting process. In an early August interview, well before any maps were drafted, Senate President pro tem Cindy O’Laughlin said that Governor Kehoe was right to consider calling a redistricting session.
“He wants to be sure Missouri’s representation matches Missouri’s Christian conservative majority,”
When he finally called the special on August 29th, Governor Kehoe said the resulting map would result in a Congressional delegation that represented “common sense values, rooted in faith, family, and freedom.”
I would again like to remind you at this time that the Congressman seeing his district destroyed, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, is a Methodist minister. Congressman Cleaver had his own comments when the session was announced.
“Our nation has endured wars, depressions, and great struggles for civil rights. And through it all, the principle that every vote counts has carried us forward. That principle is bigger than me, this seat, or any president looking to rig the rules for personal gain.”
Cleaver knew the fix was in, at least for the legislative process. He would not grovel, he would remain defiant.
The 2025 Remap Process
The special session for redistricting kicked off on September 3rd. Democrats, in the minority in both chambers, had little they could do to short-circuit what Republicans planned. All they could do was speak and make as much noise as possible. Activists also flooded the legislative gallery, protesting the moves against Kansas City.
Plenty of Democrats pointed out the entire session was happening because of Trump’s demands. Senator Stephen Webber said it best regarding the Governor bowing down to Trump’s redistricting directive
“We’re no longer the ‘Show Me State. We’re the ‘Yes, sir state.’”
Only one map was introduced, a map that Governor Kehoe called the “Missouri First” map; an obvious play on “America First.” The plan did exactly what Republicans said they would do, divided up Kansas City between several districts. Under the plan, the 5th now backs Donald Trump by 20 points.
The dividing up of Kansas City was not only called out as partisan, but also being a racial gerrymander. While the 5th is not majority-Black, and not protected by the Voting Rights Act as a result, Cleaver has been the candidate of choice for the district’s 190,000 Black residents. State Senator Barbara Washington poignantly laid it out
“This erases the voice of our community. Carving up Kansas City and silencing our constituents is terrible.”
Once the map was introduced, the process was quick. On September 9th, the House passed the map, with the Senate following on September 12th. In the House, a handful of Republican rejected the plan, including House Speaker Jon Patterson! This no vote was especially notable. Patterson, who represents a district in the Kansas City metro, said the plan was not fair to the voters of Jackson County, but he would not stop the will of the house majority.
Governor Kehoe signed the map into law on September 28th. On his TruthSocial account, Donald Trump thanks Missouri Republicans.
The map has to make several changes to balance populations, but I am really only interested in discussing the changes to Kansas City.
The Cracking of Kansas City
First, lets look at what the current (2022) district 5th looks like in relation to Kansas City and partisanship. Below is the current lines.
The current 5th keeps the core of Kansas City, basically western Jackson County, whole. It also unites several northern suburbs in Clay county. This district is a united community of interest.
Now, lets look at what these new lines do to Kansas City. See the new map below.
The 5th district is divided between THREE Congressional districts; the 4th, 5th and 6th. The 4th and 5th do most of the work in dividing up the heavily Democratic core areas of the city. Those voters are then united with heavily Republican rural voters. Thanks to the division, Kansas City voters cannot influence the results of elections in any of these seats. Each election will play out with the rural voters overriding the will of Kansas City; effectively giving it no representation.
The racial component of this division cannot be overlooked. The ACLU lays it out what is happening perfectly in the statement below.
The redraw of the lines around Kansas City was along racial lines—and is aimed at unseating one of the two Black members of Congress representing Missouri. In one highly populated area of Kansas City, the new lines bisect Black and white neighbors, literally placing different racial groups on opposite sides of the track.
To really highlight this, here is how the new Kansas City lines look in comparison to the Black share of the citizen voting age population. The bluer the area, the more heavily Black it is.
As the inset on the left of the map shows, the 5th and 4th lines rope around the Black community and launch them into a district that stretches deep in the rural white countryside. As one local article put it, the district goes along a historic racial dividing line in Kansas City.
The map splits the 4th and 5th Congressional districts along Troost Avenue, a historic racial and economic dividing line. Majority Black neighborhoods east of Troost would be subsumed into the new 5th district that stretches all the way into middle Missouri, where communities are whiter and more rural.
The map is a great crime to the voters of Kansas City. However, the fight over the map is not yet done.
Fight is Not Over Yet
There are a few avenues unfolding to fight the gerrymander just passed. There are two possible avenues to block the maps usage in 2026. One is lawsuits and the other is a ballot petition. I will go over both below.
Court Fights
Within days of the maps passage, several lawsuits were formally filed over the Congressional plan. The main crux of these suits is the argument that the Missouri constitution bars mid-decade redistricting; unless driven by a court order. Here is the text of the Constitution
Section 45. Congressional apportionment.—When the number of representatives to which the state is entitled in the House of the Congress of the United States under the census of 1950 and each census thereafter is certified to the governor, the general assembly shall by law divide the state into districts corresponding with the number of representatives to which it is entitled, which districts shall be composed of contiguous territory as compact and as nearly equal in population as may be.
The lawsuits argue that mid-decade redistricting, without a court order, is not permissible. In addition, there is valid argument that the districts are not compact. Kansas City is divided between THREE Congressional districts, with little logic behind the lines other than partisanship and race. While partisan gerrymandering is not banned in Missouri, the map is not compact; especially with the 4th having an appendage that goes through part of Jackson County and divides Kansas City right on the racial line, as discussed in the last section.
There is another component to the lawsuit that could be trouble for Republicans. The map has an error in it. The bill text, which is the formal destination of the map, accidentally lists a Kansas City precinct twice. Precinct 811 is assigned to both the 4th and 5th Congressional district. The visual of this is seen below.
This error is easily attributable to the rushed nature of the process. The map was introduced and passed with the quickest turnaround possible. While this issue, which is fixable, would be unlikely to kill the map on its own, it adds fuel to the cases that argue the map is not compact and the process should be negated.
Referendum Process
There is one other avenue to either kill or delay the Congressional Map. Missouri has a “citizen veto” process, which allows residents to gather petitions to force a referendum over the legislation. If a citizen veto is initiated, then the Congressional Map would be held up until a vote; which would very likely delay the map beyond the 2026 midterms.
An organization, People not Politicians, has been organized to gather petitions. Organizers will need to get 100,000 VALIDATED petitions to trigger the citizen veto, meaning that tens of thousands more will need to be collected to account for petitions invalidated due to errors. Organizers have 90 days, and have set a December 11th deadline. Money has flowed in from many Democratic and liberal-aligned sources to fund the effort.
The December deadline stems from the time the legislature approved the Congressional Map. However, the Missouri Secretary of State initially refused to accept petitions gathered before Governor Kehoe signed the map on September 28th I have a feeling the state will do everything they can to negate petitions or stop a referendum. We will need to revisit this as the deadline approaches and we see what shenanigans the state tries to pull. Right now, however, activists are working to gather petitions to try and initiate the citizen veto process.
Final Thoughts
We will see how things shake out with the Missouri map. Perhaps it can be stopped from being implemented. Either way, the justification Republicans have used for this remap should be bone chilling for anyone who cares for representative democracy. When you declare your political opposition “evil” and “the enemy” - then free and fair elections just do not matter.