Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is calling state lawmakers back to Jefferson City to redraw the state's eight congressional districts, acceding to President Donald Trump's redistricting demands before the 2026 midterm elections.
Kehoe's decision could have profound implications for the future of Missouri politics and the 2026 Missouri General Assembly session.
Kehoe announced Friday the legislature would return in September for the redistricting special session. The focus will be to split parts of Kansas City into multiple districts in order to convert Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver's 5th District into a Republican seat.
Trump has pressured Republican states, like Texas, Indiana and Florida, to go through the unprecedented mid-decade redistricting push. The president's party often does poorly in midterm elections, and Republicans hold a historically small majority in the House.
Missouri would be the second GOP-leaning state behind Texas to make their already Republican-leaning congressional lines more favorable to the party. Supporters of the move in Missouri have made no secret that they're going through with the special session to prevent Democrats from taking over the House.
"I would rather see Mike Johnson and Republican leadership pursuing Donald Trump's America First agenda rather than Hakeem Jeffries calling for endless impeachment hearings," said U.S. Rep. Bob Onder, R-St. Charles County.
If Missouri Republicans accede to Kehoe and Trump's demands, it will be a turnaround from just three years ago.
In 2022, the heavily Republican Missouri General Assembly soundly rejected efforts to pass a map that placed Cleaver at a distinct disadvantage for reelection. They contended that in a bad year for Republicans, three Kansas City area seats could be ripe for Democratic takeovers.
That's because in order to make the 5th District winnable for Republicans, lawmakers will have to place portions of heavily Democratic Kansas City into Reps. Mark Alford and Sam Graves' districts. And while those seats would still be Republican leaning, they could become competitive in a potential wave election for Democrats. That could mean national Republican groups may have to spend millions of dollars to prevail in the 4th, 5th and 6th Districts.
"In an incredibly competitive year, you do put other U.S. congressional seats at risk," said House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins, R-Bowling Green. "I think that is true,"
Trump's staff is exerting pressure on people like Perkins, who received a phone call from the White House after he expressed misgivings to the Missouri Independent.
"Our more moderate Republicans in the legislature were reluctant previously to enact a 7-1 map," said Gregg Keller, a St. Louis County-based Republican political consultant. "But when the President and his top White House staff started making personal calls to the electeds, that squeamishness disappeared very quickly. No Missouri Republican officeholder wants to risk being embarrassed publicly by a sitting President who wins the state handily and is beloved by our voters."
Democratic predicament
Democrats, including Cleaver, have condemned the prospect of a redistricting special session as a desperate and illegal Republican effort to tip the scales of the 2026 election their way.
They've also been especially critical of GOP leaders who didn't actively support going after Cleaver in 2022 but have changed course due to pressure from the White House.
"The governor's complete capitulation to the president's will proves that Donald Trump – not Mike Kehoe – calls the shots in Missouri, while the man Missourians elected to lead our state is a mere puppet responding to his master's commands," said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City. "The governor and every rational Missouri Republican knows reopening congressional redistricting six years ahead of schedule to try to create another GOP seat not only is wrong, but likely to backfire. That's why Republican lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against the idea just three years ago."
Some legal experts have questioned whether the Missouri Constitution authorizes the legislature to redraw congressional districts at this point in the decade. They also have wondered if any district can meet equal population thresholds, since the new map will use population data that's more than four years old.
"The Constitution says that after the decennial census comes out, then you have, by law, redistricting. And that's the way it's always been. Usually there's some kind of deal cut, and they do the redistricting, and we move on," said former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff. "There's no provision in there for going halfway through the game. The game's 10 years long. And you have 10 years of these districts."
Still, Democrats will have limited ability to stop the maps from passing in a special session. Barring mass defections from Republicans, a new redistricting plan will likely easily pass the Missouri House. And even though Senate Democrats plan to filibuster any proposal, Republicans could use a maneuver known as the previous question to cut off debate.
Senate Democrats were already fuming over the last week of session, when Republicans used the previous question to force votes on measures counteracting abortion rights and paid sick leave initiatives. Sen. Patty Lewis, D-Kansas City, said her caucus could make the 2026 session even more miserable and unproductive for the GOP majority.
"Even though they have the super majority, there's a lot of issues that require the Democrats' votes, like the budget," Lewis said. "If they continue with their plan to gerrymander the maps I have no desire to work with them."
It's unclear whether Cleaver, who will turn 81 in October, will run in a reconfigured 5th Congressional District that's much more Republican. The former Kansas City mayor doesn't have the track record raising the millions of dollars necessary to run for Congress in a nationally-targeted race.
Asked by NPR this week if he'd run again if Republicans are successful at converting his Democratic seat into a Republican-leaning one, Cleaver replied: "I'm going to have to look at that and think about it. As of this very moment, I am running and not considering retirement."
Big changes to St. Louis area
Meanwhile, the districts of some St. Louis area lawmakers could be in for a major overhaul – though not as dramatic from a partisan standpoint as the Kansas City area.
Republicans could put all of St. Charles County in U.S. Rep. Bob Onder's 3rd District, meaning he'll have to cede territory in mid-Missouri to other federal lawmakers. And 2nd District GOP Congresswoman Ann Wagner would pick up voters in Jefferson County.
Neither of those moves would likely significantly change the partisan composition of those districts. The 3rd District would still be safe for Republicans, while the 2nd District would lean toward the GOP – but still be competitive enough for Democratic groups to target if the national environment is good for the party.
Lawmakers don't plan to make significant changes to U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell's 1st District, which takes in all of St. Louis and part of St. Louis County. Not only is that seat protected by the Voting Rights Act, but its configuration arguably helps Republicans by not putting significant numbers of Black voters, who historically vote Democratic, in the 2nd and 3rd districts.
Wagner and Onder have both publicly supported the Trump-inspired redistricting endeavor – as have Missouri U.S. Reps. Jason Smith and Eric Burlison. Lawmakers will likely make marginal changes to Smith's southeast Missouri-based 8th District and Burlison's southwest Missouri-based 7th District, which are both GOP strongholds.
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