Jefferson City, Missouri (AP) – Missouri residents have denounced plans Redraw the state’s legislative district On Thursday, Republican lawmakers pushed President Donald Trump’s strategy to strengthen Republicans in next year’s Congressional elections.
Dozens of people have been revealed for the first hearing on the plan Splitting Kansas City Council District To film Republicans winning seven of the eight US home seats in Missouri. Republicans already own six of those seats.
“Kansas City doesn’t want to split up. We deserve expression and voice,” said Kristen Ellis Johnson, a Kansas City lawyer who came to Capitol with her husband and daughter. “You’re deliberately splitting the liberal population living in cities to change those votes.”
Nevertheless, a Republican-led committee has supported the plan and is one step closer to House debate next week.
Missouri is a state that has joined the new national battle between Republicans and Democrats, seeking benefits in the way US residential areas are drawn.
With Trump’s chargeTexas rebrews US home districts last month to give Republicans a chance We won an additional 5 seats. California has rebutted its own Revised map The Democrats aimed to win five more US home seats. California’s plans require voter approval in November.
Nationally, interests are high as Democrats need to win just three seats in the 2026 election to control their homes. And historically, the president’s party usually loses a seat in Congress in the midterm elections, as it happened during Trump’s first term.
Kansas City area will merge with rural areas
The revised Missouri map of Congress proposed by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe targeted the seat held by Democrat Emmanuel Cleaver by extending east from Kansas City to include the claims of the Rural Republican.
Lawmakers have heard public criticism in Jefferson City, but some opponents held a press conference in Kansas City near the intersection of the three newly proposed districts. Edgar Palacios, president and CEO of Latinx Education Collaborative, wore black to the event to condemn the district’s proposal.
“We’re at the funeral, a democratic funeral in Missouri,” Palacios said. “This jerrymander runs directly against everything we fight. “Your voice, your community, your votes don’t matter,” he says loudly and clearly. ”
Ashley Sadowski, a mother of seven and 11, said she is a student at Kansas City public schools, and said the proposed map has more impact than winning the election.
“This means driving from my home in one council district to my son’s middle school in another council district,” she said. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“Politicians are denying the unified voice that children deserve DC,” added Sadowski.
During the legislative hearing, lobbyist Shannon Cooper said he was opposed to the revised map as the Kansas city government’s representation of one person in a US home has helped bring federal employment and projects to the area.
Some rural residents also said they didn’t want to be combined into the same district as Kansas City.
“If that’s the case, Kansas City people won’t be able to meet their needs in Congress, which will dilute their votes entirely,” Glenda Bainbridge, a Democrat from rural Odessa, told The Associated Press as she is waiting for her turn to testify against the bill.
Only one person spoke in support of the new map at the hearing. Missouri leaders said the revised district could help send another anti-abortion lawmaker to Washington, D.C.
Missouri’s rezoning process facing legal challenges
State Senator Dirk Deaton, who sponsors the district’s legislation, said the proposed map would separate counties and cities, which divide counties and cities across multiple districts than current legislative districts.
“It’s an improvement. It’s a reform of our current council map,” Deaton said.
He has not publicly disclosed demographic data showing the racial composition of the newly proposed district. Republican lawmakers said they have no data on the presumed partisan composition of voters.
State Senator Mark Sharp of Kansas City, a ranking Democrat on the Constituency Change Committee, has denounced the plan as a “morally corrupt” attempt to push Cleaver into “early retirement.”
Cleaver says if it passes, he will try a new map in court.
The Missouri NAACP has already filed a lawsuit in state courts seeking to suspend special sessions. I argue that Kehoe’s special session appeal is unconstitutional, as there is no extraordinary situation to justify it. It also argues that the Missouri Constitution prohibits redrawing of Congressional districts without new census data or invalidation of current districts.
Under the current map of Missouri, only one district is moderately competitive. Republican US Rep. Anne Wagner won her suburban St. Louis seat in each of the last two elections with around 55% of her votes. Cleaver was re-electioned in both 2024 and 2022, with over 60% of the vote, and most of the other Missouri districts had even bigger winning margins.
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Associated Press reporters Heather Hollingsworth and Nicholas Ingram contributed from Kansas City, Missouri.
