President Donald Trump is pushing for another Republican-controlled state to redraw its congressional districts with the goal of eliminating at least one seat currently held by a Democrat.
The call comes after the Texas legislature voted this week to redraw its maps, giving its congressional delegation potentially five more GOP-held seats.
According to the Springfield News-Leader, the new congressional district map for Missouri, reportedly drafted in Washington, D.C., is circulating but has not yet been made public.
Jennifer Bukowsky of Columbia, vice chair of the Republican State Committee, said Wednesday that she has been unable to review the proposal. She added that she expects a special legislative session will be called once there is agreement between the Trump White House and the Republican National Committee on how to revise the state’s current boundaries.
Any new map is expected to target the 5th District, centered in Kansas City, by adding enough Republican voters to weaken the position of Democratic incumbent Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. If the effort is successful, that would give Republicans seven of the state’s eight congressional seats.
Republican-led efforts to pursue redistricting come as the party looks to strengthen its narrow majority in Congress. With a 219–212 advantage — and four seats currently vacant, three of them formerly held by Democrats — GOP leaders are concerned that even a modest shift in voter sentiment could cost them control of the House.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Governor Mike Kehoe stated that his main concern is to preserve the Republican majority in Congress, the News-Leader noted.
“Our goal, if we move forward — and there’s no decision to move forward — is to make sure Missouri’s values are reflected in Washington, D.C.,” Kehoe said. “And I’ve said many times that I think our current speaker does a very good job of matching the values of Missourians.”
Republican members of the Missouri House have been informed that two caucus meetings will be held during the legislature’s annual veto session, which begins Sept. 10, state Rep. Barry Hovis of Cape Girardeau said Wednesday in an interview with The Independent.
Hovis said one meeting will likely focus on potential veto overrides, while the other is expected to include an in-depth discussion on redistricting.
Hovis said one factor in deciding whether Missouri should redraw its congressional map will be how Democratic-led states such as California, Illinois, or New York respond to recent redistricting moves in Texas. He noted that heavily gerrymandered districts can be found in states dominated by either party.
As examples, he pointed to a district in Illinois that stretches in the shape of a snake and to Massachusetts, where Republicans receive a vote share comparable to Democrats in Missouri but hold no congressional seats.
But the call would have to come from the governor. “For me to tell you that I know exactly what we’re going to do here, I truly don’t,” Hovis told the Springfield outlet.
Missouri’s current congressional map was adopted in 2022 following a contentious intra-party fight among Republicans over whether to create seven GOP-leaning districts. With Democrats vowing to filibuster any new redistricting plan in the Senate, passing a revised map is expected to be challenging, said the outlet.
Hovis said the greatest obstacle for Republicans will be crafting a map that expands the party’s advantage without jeopardizing existing GOP-held districts by adding large numbers of Democratic voters.
“If we go to the Kansas City model, the one that I saw when we did this several years ago, we’re going to have some districts that could be more purple than red, and we could end up being 5-3, real easy, or worst case scenario, 4-4,” he warned.
Bukowsky said incumbents are often the most invested in redistricting, since they prefer maps that preserve the voters familiar with their names. Potential challengers, by contrast, favor maps that bring in voters more closely aligned with their political views, the outlet reported.