Missouri House approves new GOP-friendly congressional map

The Missouri state House has approved a new congressional district map designed to give Republicans an additional seat in its U.S. House delegation, sending the plan to the state Senate for approval.

The proposal passed in a mostly party-line vote with some defections, 90 to 65, after Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) called for a special session for thestate Legislature to set a new map for the rest of the decade. The redrawn map, if ultimately approved, would likely increase the margin in the U.S. House from six Republicans and two Democrats to seven Republicans and one Democrat.

Democratic state House members denounced the map as a power grab and Republicans yielding to President Trump’s wishes, but with the party in a significant minority in both houses of the Legislature, they don’t have much power to stop the map from advancing.

More than a dozen Republicans did break with their party to vote against the map proposal, including state House Speaker Jonathan Patterson (R). But it wasn’t enough to defeat the measure in the chamber.

The map is expected to pass in the state Senate and be signed into law by Kehoe to be in place in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who has represented the Kansas City area for two decades, is the member most likely to lose a seat as a result of the changes. The new map would break up the major city into multiple districts and add rural areas to the east of the current district to make it much more conservative.

The district that Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) holds, in the St. Louis area, would generally be left as is.

Missouri’s action makes it the latest state to get involved in the increasingly national redistricting battle taking place ahead of the midterms. Texas already signed off on a map that could add as many as five additional Republican-held seats next year.

California Democrats responded with a ballot measure passed by Golden State lawmakers to allow them to redraw the state’s lines and potentially pick up five more Democratic-held seats in response. The measure, if approved by voters in November, would only be used if another state redistricts first.

Other states on both sides of the aisle have been said to be eyeing redistricting, such as Florida and Maryland.

Updated at 3:01 p.m. EDT