Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe says he'll 'see if there's a path' to gerrymander KC

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe on Tuesday expressed interest in President Donald Trump’s push to gerrymander the congressional district that encompasses most of Kansas City and ensure Republicans maintain a majority in the U.S. House.

“We want to keep the House in Republican control,” Kehoe told reporters on Tuesday. “We’ll work with our leadership group and see if there’s a path or something that makes sense for Missourians.”

The Republican governor, speaking after an unrelated event in Columbia on Tuesday, did not say whether he would call lawmakers into a special session to discuss the matter. But he also did not rule out the possibility as speculation ramps up about the likelihood of Missouri entering a national redistricting frenzy on the heels of a similar effort in Texas.

The push comes as Trump’s political team has put pressure on lawmakers to redraw the state’s U.S. House map so Republicans can pick up another seat. The likely move would be to split up U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Democratic-leaning 5th District, which includes almost all of Kansas City and some of its suburbs in Jackson and Clay counties.

“We’ve spoken with the Trump administration and with members of Congress,” Kehoe said in response to a question from The Star. “And obviously, Missourians are stakeholders too. We want to make sure we represent their conservative values in Washington, D.C.”

The move would mark an extraordinary moment for both Kansas City and Missouri, effectively dampening the voting power of Kansas City in an effort by Trump to maintain a GOP majority in Congress. It’s also certain to face fierce backlash and lawsuits from opponents.

Congressional districts are typically only redrawn once every 10 years based on population changes released from the U.S. Census Bureau, and Missouri last redistricted its map in 2022.

Cleaver has sharply criticized the effort, saying last week it would be met with a strong legal challenge. But Democratic lawmakers from the Kansas City area suggested in interviews with The Star this week that a Republican redistricting effort appeared inevitable.

“Trump snaps and they — they’re already doing whatever he tells them to do,” said Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat running for state Senate. “I would love to say that my colleagues have more strength and conviction than that, but they do not.”

The proposed idea, which some GOP lawmakers have confirmed to The Star and various media outlets, would center on drawing a map that could allow Republicans to pick up seven of the state’s eight congressional districts.

Republicans currently control six districts, and Democrats hold the 5th District in Kansas City and the 1st District in St. Louis, per the maps the state approved and implemented just three years ago.

The proposed plan would be an overt use of partisan gerrymandering, a term used to describe the practice of redrawing electoral district boundaries to favor one party over another. It would echo a national blitz of Republican lawmakers in various states gunning to draw new maps at the encouragement of Trump.

Dozens of Texas Democratic lawmakers have left their state in an effort to delay a vote on a Republican plan to gerrymander that state’s congressional map. The GOP push has also sparked a retaliatory response in Democratic-leaning California.

What would need to happen in Missouri

Missouri lawmakers are not currently in their annual legislative session, which runs from January through mid-May. Therefore, Kehoe would have to call lawmakers back to Jefferson City in a special session if he wants them to redraw the map.

“I would say most House and Senate members were unhappy with the maps that we produced a few years back,” Kehoe said on Tuesday.

Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin emphasized in a statement on Tuesday that no decision had been made about the redistricting push. O’Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican, said she would support Kehoe in his decision to call — or not call — a special session.

She added that national Democrats have embraced “extreme policies” — without mentioning any specific policies — and said “we must remain vigilant and do what we can to keep socialists from gaining more control.”

“If the Governor calls a special session, the Senate will be ready to engage in those discussions,” she said.

While some of Missouri’s Republican lawmakers have expressed support for the push, a similar effort failed in 2022 after lawmakers reached a compromise that maintained the current 6-2 makeup.

At that time, some Republicans feared that splitting Cleaver’s Kansas City district could backfire and lead to Democrats winning other competitive districts.

Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee’s Summit Republican, told The Star last week that any redistricting effort would have to be sustainable so Republicans don’t end up losing more districts in a future election year in which the GOP performs poorly.

“It’s got to be something that can stand up to a bad Republican year, which at some point we’ll have,” Cierpiot said.

Kehoe did not directly answer a question about those concerns on Tuesday. Instead, he pointed to congressional maps in blue states, such as Illinois, as evidence of Democratic gerrymandering.

“You got to operate with what’s best for the state and the citizens and for our country,” Kehoe said when asked whether there was any hesitance in his office about a redistricting effort backfiring. “And I think that’s the focus we’re going to have.”

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