Missouri governor signs new GOP-favored map

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.

Read more at: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5500453-missouri-redistricting-gop-gains/