JEFFERSON CITY, Mo (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe stated Friday that he’s calling Missouri lawmakers right into a particular session to redraw the state’s U.S. Home districts as a part of a rising nationwide battle between Republicans and Democrats in search of an edge in subsequent yr’s congressional elections.
Kehoe made the announcement simply hours after Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed into regulation a brand new congressional voting map designed to assist Republicans acquire 5 extra seats within the 2026 midterm elections. It marked a win for President Donald Trump, who has been urging Republican-led states to reshape district traces to provide the celebration a greater shot at retaining management of the Home.
Missouri is the third state to pursue an uncommon mid-decade redistricting for partisan benefit. Republican-led Texas took up the duty first however was shortly countered by Democratic-led California, the place Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking voters to approve a map geared toward giving his celebration 5 extra seats.
Kehoe scheduled Missouri’s particular session to start Sept. 3. He launched a proposed new map that targets Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas Metropolis-area district by stretching it eastward into rural Republican-leaning areas.
His agenda additionally contains one other Republican precedence — a proposed constitutional modification that may make it more durable to approve citizen-initiated poll measures, reminiscent of abortion-rights and marijuana legalization amendments adopted lately.
Kehoe forged each gadgets as a protection towards liberal politicians and activists.
“Missouri’s conservative, commonsense values needs to be really represented in any respect ranges of presidency,” he stated in an announcement.
Democrats have been fast to precise outrage. Missouri state Home Minority Chief Ashley Aune known as Kehoe a “Trump puppet” trying to “steal a congressional seat for Republicans” and intestine the poll initiative course of.
It “marks the worst risk to the integrity of our state authorities since pro-slavery lawmakers voted for Missouri to affix the Confederacy in 1861,” Aune stated in an announcement.
Missouri is represented within the U.S. Home by six Republicans and two Democrats — Cleaver and Rep. Wesley Bell in St. Louis.
Cleaver known as the proposed redistricting an assault on democracy perpetrated by Trump.
“This try to gerrymander Missouri is not going to merely change district traces, it should silence voices. It’ll deny illustration,” Cleaver stated in an announcement whereas vowing to not concede the seat.
Missouri Democrats have little skill to stop Republican lawmakers from enacting a brand new map. In contrast to in Texas, the place Democrats left the state for 2 weeks to delay a vote, Missouri Democrats’ absence wouldn’t forestall a quorum for enterprise. And though Democrats might filibuster within the Senate, Republicans might use procedural maneuvers to close that down, as they did earlier this yr to cross a proposed constitutional modification limiting abortion.
Republicans gained a 220-215 Home majority over Democrats in 2024, an end result that aligned nearly completely with the share of the vote gained by the 2 events in districts throughout the U.S., in keeping with a current Related Press evaluation. Though the general end result was near impartial, the AP’s evaluation exhibits that Democrats and Republicans every benefited from benefits particularly states stemming from the best way districts have been drawn.
Democrats would want to web three seats in subsequent yr’s election to take management of the chamber. The incumbent president’s celebration tends to lose seats within the midterm elections, as was the case for Trump in 2018, when Democrats gained management of the Home and subsequently launched investigations of Trump. In search of to keep away from an identical scenario in his second time period, Trump has urged Republican-led states to fortify their congressional seats.
In Texas, Republicans already maintain 25 of the 38 congressional seats.
“Texas is now extra purple in the USA Congress,” Abbott stated in a video he posted on X of him signing the laws.
Newsom, who has emerged as a number one adversary of Trump on redistricting and different points, tauntingly labeled Abbott on X because the president’s “#1 lapdog” following the signing. Democrats already maintain 43 of California’s 52 congressional seats.
Voting rights teams filed a lawsuit this week forward of Abbott’s signing the invoice, saying the brand new map weakens the electoral affect of Black voters. Texas Democrats have additionally vowed to problem the brand new map in court docket.
Some Missouri Republicans had pushed for a map that might give them a 7-1 edge when redrawing districts after the 2020 census. However the GOP legislative majority in the end opted towards it. Some feared the extra aggressive plan might be inclined to a authorized problem and will backfire in a poor election yr for Republicans by creating extra aggressive districts that might enable Democrats to win three seats.
Republican officers in Florida, Indiana and elsewhere are also contemplating revising their U.S. Home districts, as are Democratic officers in Illinois, Maryland and New York.
In Utah, a decide lately ordered the Republican-led Legislature to attract new congressional districts after discovering that lawmakers had weakened and ignored an impartial fee established by voters to stop partisan gerrymandering. Republicans have gained all 4 of Utah’s congressional seats underneath the map accredited by lawmakers in 2021.
DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Related Press journalist Jim Vertuno contributed from Austin, Texas.