The new map, signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe last summer, split Kansas City voters into three Republican-leaning districts. The new boundaries carved more than 70,000 minority residents out of Cleaver’s district and used Troost Avenue, Kansas City’s historic racial dividing line, to split up the districts. It marked an overt example of partisan gerrymandering, a term used to describe the practice of redrawing electoral district boundaries to favor one party over another.

Under the map, Cleaver would be forced to campaign in a district that stretches east from Troost Avenue to the rural cities and towns spread across central Missouri. It combines the voters in eastern Jackson County with voters in places hours away, like Jefferson City, Maries County and Osage County.