Missouri is the latest Red state to approve redistricting legislation for the 2026 midterm elections, reports Metro Voice News. Governor Mike Koehoe officially signed the Missouri First Map into law, and it is expected to give Republicans one more Congressional seat in the Show-Me-State. The 5th Missouri congressional district was redrawn to eliminate one of the most liberal members of Congress, former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver.
Chris Arps is a Missouri talk show host and an ambassador for the Project 21: Black Leadership Network. He says they've wanted to get rid of Cleaver for quite some time.
"In 2020, the idea to eliminate Congressman Cleaver's district was very much discussed in the legislature, and a lot of Republicans wanted them redistricted out,” informs Arps.
He says that it failed at the time, but now, something is being done five years later.
“His district is being expanded farther west into the middle of Missouri, which encompasses a lot of rural Republicans,” explains Arps. “So, it's going to be a much more difficult seat for him to win if he wants to reclaim it."
He says, of course, there have already been several legal challenges to the new law. Missouri Independent reports that a new lawsuit argues the authority to revise congressional districts when there is no new census data.
"I think the main argument, that the opponents of this redistrict effort are using, is that our state constitution says that redistricting is supposed to happen every 10 years. It's not supposed to happen mid-decade,” states Arps.
He says that he has had legal experts, who have appeared on the show, affirm that the state constitution does say redistricting happens every decade; however, it does not explicitly prohibit redistricting from happening.
“So, of course, it'll go to court. We'll see what happens," concludes Arps.
