Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) signed the state’s new congressional map into law, setting the GOP up to gain one additional seat in the House in next year’s elections.
“I was proud to officially sign the Missouri First Map into law today ahead of the 2026 midterm election,” Kehoe said in a statement on Sunday. “Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our values, across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of the congressional representation of states like New York, California, and Illinois. We believe this map best represents Missourians, and I appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my desk.”
Kehoe signed it after the measure comfortably passed in both houses of the state Legislature, along mostly party-line votes, though some Republicans in the state House broke with their party to vote against it. The law redraws the lines of Missouri’s congressional map ahead of the midterms to likely increase the number of Republicans representing the state in the U.S. House to seven and reduce the number of Democrats to one.
The Democrat targeted in the new map is Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who has represented the Kansas City area for two decades. But the map splits the urban center into three districts and adds additional rural territory to Cleaver’s district to make it much more conservative.
Democrats have denounced the move as a power grab designed to enact President Trump’s will, but they were powerless to stop it with minorities in the state House and Senate. But opponents of the new map are likely to pursue a legal challenge, as they have argued it violates the Voting Rights Act.
And they also could have another avenue through state law that allows them to try to gather signatures to put the map on the ballot for the voters to decide whether it should go into effect.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin said Kehoe and Missouri Republicans have shown they care more about holding onto power than the “fundamental rights” of Missourians.
“This is a right-wing power grab so Republicans can avoid accountability for voting to take away the health care of hundreds of thousands of Missourians. But the battle in Missouri isn’t over,” Martin said. “Missourians have the opportunity to put this craven power grab up for a vote. The DNC supports Missouri organizers collecting ballot signatures to take democracy back into their own hands and defeat these rigged maps once and for all.”
Republicans’ move in Missouri comes amid the national redistricting battle that began when the Texas GOP approved a map that could net the party up to five additional seats in the midterms. California lawmakers responded with approving a ballot measure for voters in November to allow them to redraw their state’s map and possibly give Democrats up to five additional seats to neutralize the gains made in Texas.
But Republicans have more pathways to try to pick up seats through mid-decade redistricting in states like Missouri. Other Republican-led states like Ohio and Florida may look to add seats, while Democrats’ opportunities are limited to possibly states like Maryland.
Updated at 6:06 p.m. EDT
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