Trump-backed plan to redraw Missouri congressional districts draws opposition at first hearing

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.

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.

Some rural residents said Thursday that 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.

State Rep. Dirk Deaton, who’s sponsoring the redistricting legislation, described the proposed map as an improvement that splits fewer counties and cities among multiple districts than the current congressional districts.

Deaton didn’t publicly disclose demographic data showing the racial makeup of the newly proposed districts. The Republican 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.