This story was originally published by KCUR, 89.3, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
Gov. Mike Kehoe on Friday called a special session to redraw Missouri’s congressional districts. The move is an effort to change the state’s 5th District — which has been held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005 — and give President Donald Trump one additional Republican vote in the U.S. House.
The special session will begin Sept. 3. Kehoe also said the session will focus on initiative petition reform “to ensure our districts and Constitution truly put Missouri values first,” he said in a statement.
The initiative petition changes, pushed by conservative lawmakers for years, would make citizen-led initiative petitions — like those overturning Missouri’s abortion ban and enacting a minimum wage increase and paid sick days — harder to enact.
The special session has been pushed by Trump since July, when he gave orders to Republican states to redraw their political boundaries to turn seats or make them safer for Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
Kehoe’s call comes the same day that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the state’s newly gerrymandered map into law, setting up Republicans to win five additional House seats.
Cleaver has repeatedly spoken out against the effort to redistrict his seat, calling the effort illegal. He has called on Democrats to fight against redistricting.
“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 said in a statement Friday, minutes after the special session was announced. “This attempt to gerrymander Missouri will not simply change district lines, it will silence voices. It will deny representation. It will tell the people of Missouri that their lawmakers no longer wish to earn their vote, that elections are predetermined by the power brokers in Washington, and that politicians — not the people — will decide the outcome.”
Last week, Trump wrote in a social media post that “The Great State of Missouri is now IN. I’m not surprised… We’re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!”
Missouri has eight congressional districts. Only two, in Kansas City and St. Louis, are held by Democrats. Democratic U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell’s 1st District seat in St. Louis is likely to remain intact.
Missouri Republicans are hoping to dilute 5th District voters into the surrounding 4th and 6th districts, creating a 7-1 Republican-leaning map.
The 7-1 map was considered and rejected in 2022, when Republicans publicly fought about whether to go after Cleaver’s seat. In the end, the legislature decided on a so-called “6-2” map because they feared splitting Kansas City up could make the 4th and 6th districts more competitive.
But many Republican lawmakers in the state now support Trump’s call to redistrict Missouri in favor of the Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Bob Onder represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers east-central Missouri. Onder was a strong supporter of redistricting in 2022.
“We are a Republican state. Republicans have supermajorities in the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate,” Onder, of St. Charles County, said in an interview with St. Louis Public Radio. “Republicans hold all of our statewide elected offices, including, of course, governor. And I believe that we should pass a congressional map that reflects the values of the state of Missouri.”
Kehoe released a version of the proposed “Missouri First” map that he wants lawmakers to take up. It moves all of Platte County and Clay County into the 6th District, while all of downtown and midtown Kansas City into the 4th District. Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs, two other Jackson County cities, would also move into the 4th.
At a news conference in July, Kehoe told reporters he and others in the state government were taking a look at any option to ensure Missouri’s conservative values are represented in Washington, D.C.
“I think it’s safe to say that, in Missouri, along with other states, we’re always trying to make sure that we have as much Republican representation because we believe that’s who we are,” he said.
Redistricting is typically done earlier in the decade following the national census, which determines how many congressional seats each state gets. But Trump has pushed GOP-led states to leap into the process early, with the explicit goal of helping Republicans maintain their slim control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm elections.
It’s set off a flurry of legislative action across the country. In response to Texas, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing to adopt a map that could eliminate an equal number of Republican-leaning districts — but the plan still has to be approved by voters this November.
Missouri may be followed by Republicans in Indiana and Florida, and by Democrats in Illinois and Maryland. But no other states have made it official yet.
Redistricting also comes with some risks. The map that Missouri Republican lawmakers want could make it less likely that U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, who represents the 4th Congressional District, and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, who represents the 6th Congressional District, win their currently safe Republican seats.
The influx of voters from the Kansas City area could make those districts more competitive.
Alford, for his part, said he’s trying to stay neutral. His district covers portions of the Kansas City area and western and mid-Missouri.
“I don’t care where the lines are drawn,” Alford said in an interview with St. Louis Public Radio. “…I will still work just as hard. I will listen even more. And I will make sure that when I am sworn into office on Jan. 3, 2027, if there is this new district, I will fight just as hard for every individual in that district, no matter what your party affiliation is.”
More than 500 workers and civil rights leaders gathered in Kansas City last week to protest the redistricting effort and express their belief that many of their basic rights would be violated if the congressional map is successfully redrawn.
Another protest against the redistricting effort is planned for noon on Monday, Sept. 1. Area unions, workers and community allies planned the protest at Mill Creek Park before Kehoe announced the special session.
