It's Happening: Missouri to Hold Special Session to Redraw Congressional Districts

Matt Vespa | August 30, 2025 6:30 AM

Democrats were warned this would end badly for them. There is no way they can win a redistricting war. We own the cards. It all stems from California Gov. Gavin Newsom thinking his little tweaks to California’s maps will offset the redistricting done in Texas, where five new winnable GOP districts were created.

The bluest of blue states are threatening to redistrict, and it won’t make a bit of difference. In Massachusetts, they threatened to redraw their maps in response to Texas’ new map. The problem: They haven’t had a Republican congressman for 30 years. Now, Missouri is scheduled to hold a special session to potentially redraw its maps, potentially giving Republicans another seat (via ABC News):

Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe announced on Friday that he was calling for a special legislative session that will include redrawing the state's congressional map -- setting the stage for mid-decade redistricting in the state after Texas just finished doing the same.
The special session, which will begin Wednesday, will also focus on reforming the state's ballot initiative petition process.
"Today, I am calling on the General Assembly to take action on congressional redistricting and initiative petition reform to ensure our districts and Constitution truly put Missouri values first," Kehoe said in a statement on Friday.
Kehoe also unveiled a proposed congressional map that he called the "Missouri First Map," which he said splinters counties and towns less than the state's current one and preserves two districts as they are.
[…]
Missouri's current congressional delegation is made of six Republicans and two Democrats.
Kehoe's proposed congressional map significantly redraws the 5th congressional district -- represented by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2004 -- to include a significantly larger swath of the state.