{"id":12734,"date":"2025-08-29T21:48:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/missouri-to-take-up-redistricting-in-special-session-likely-netting-gop-1-seat\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T21:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:48:55","slug":"missouri-to-take-up-redistricting-in-special-session-likely-netting-gop-1-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/missouri-to-take-up-redistricting-in-special-session-likely-netting-gop-1-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri to take up redistricting in special session, likely netting GOP 1 seat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe said Friday that the state\u2019s Legislature will draw new congressional maps in a special session, officially inserting the deep-red state into the nationwide redistricting battle that will reshape the fight to control the House in 2026.<\/p>\n

Missouri\u2019s redistricting push could see the state add an additional Republican-majority district to its eight-member congressional delegation. The delegation is currently split between six Republicans and two Democrats.<\/p>\n

Kehoe released its proposed maps on Friday, which target the Kansas City-area 5th Congressional district held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver<\/a>. The special session will be Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The move is the next phase of President Donald Trump\u2019s effort to pressure GOP-controlled states to take up mid-decade redistricting to strengthen Republicans\u2019 chances of retaining control of the House.<\/p>\n

Last week, Trump preemptively declared Missouri had signed up for mid-decade redistricting and stressed its importance in helping Republicans win in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Great State of Missouri is now IN. I\u2019m not surprised. It is a great State with fabulous people,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social last week<\/a>. \u201cI won it, all 3 times, in a landslide. We\u2019re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump played a key role in pushing Texas Republicans to draw new maps with five additional Republican-friendly districts. In response, Texas Democrats left the state to deny the Legislature a quorum and temporarily delay approval of the new maps.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Missouri will face more obstacles to oppose a GOP gerrymander \u2014 Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers of Missouri\u2019s Legislature, meaning they can power through any Democratic opposition.<\/p>\n

Republicans are hoping other states follow Texas and Missouri. Trump and Vice President JD Vance this week ratcheted up their pressure campaign<\/a> on Indiana Republicans in hopes the state will redraw its maps to create another favorable district. Ohio could also produce as many as three additional Republican-leaning districts when the state takes up its mandatory redraw.<\/p>\n

Democrats have limited paths to counter the White House\u2019s redistricting effort beyond California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and statewide Democrats are seeking to form five new Democratic-leaning districts through a ballot measure. Some Democrats are eyeing an unexpected opportunity<\/a> to potentially challenge for a seat in Utah after a judge ordered the state\u2019s Legislature to draw new maps compliant with state rules restricting partisan gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

But other Democratic governors have yet to take concrete steps towards redistricting \u2014 and the party is outnumbered in the redistricting arms race. Republicans control the governor\u2019s office and the state Legislature in 23 states, compared to only 15 states for Democrats.<\/p>\n

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin attacked Missouri\u2019s redistricting plan as an attempt to undermine Missouri voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime and time again, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe has undermined the voice of Missouri voters,\u201d Martin said in a statement on Friday. \u201cNow he is attempting to dilute their power altogether by removing the ability of Missourians to stand up against this power grab.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe said Friday that the state\u2019s Legislature will draw new congressional maps in a special session, officially inserting the deep-red state into the nationwide redistricting battle that will reshape the fight to control the House in 2026. Missouri\u2019s redistricting push could see the state add an additional Republican-majority district to its eight-member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}