KC-area Democrats rally behind Rep. Cleaver as Missouri gerrymandering push looms
As President Donald Trump’s political team pressures Missouri Republicans to add another GOP seat to Congress through redistricting the state — likely targeting the 5th District that covers most of Kansas City — local leaders are rallying to keep one of the state’s few historically Democratic seats in place.
“This is not just an attack on our district,” said Michael Johnson, chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, at a Friday press conference led by the Caucus. “It is an attack on fairness, on representation. It is an attack on our people and the will of our people.”
The Trump administration has made overtures toward aggressive gerrymandering across the country in recent days in an attempt to shift more seats in Congress to Republicans ahead of a consequential midterm election season.
Gerrymandering is the process of manipulating the way voting districts are drawn on a map in order to ensure that one political party has a majority of voters, when the other party might win if the same area were sliced up differently.
U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, told The Star last week that Trump wants state lawmakers to redraw Missouri’s U.S. House map to carve out another GOP seat in the state. In the days since the possibility became public, anger has radiated through both state and city Democratic enclaves.
“We need folks to know that this is completely, completely unacceptable,” Missouri Rep. Mark Sharp, treasurer of the MLBC, said. “I’ve been there for six years now. I’ve seen legislation that overturned the will of the people. This is far worse.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has signaled interest in Trump’s aim, telling reporters Tuesday that he wants “to keep the House in Republican control.”
Lawmakers believe that any redistricting efforts would likely target Kansas City, rather than attempting to redraw the state’s other Democratic district in St. Louis. The reformat would likely split up Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, which U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Kansas City’s longtime Democratic congressman, has represented since 2005.
“We will not allow the voices of Kansas City to be silenced, or our communities to be carved up for political gain,” Johnson said Friday. “The Fifth District is more than the lines of a map. It is our home.”
Cleaver’s legacy
Cleaver, who speaks of using most of his time in Congress to advocate for affordable housing development in and around his district, served as the first Black mayor of Kansas City from 1991 to 1999. He also chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2011 to 2013.
Though Cleaver did not speak at Friday’s meeting, multiple members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus took the opportunity to praise his work in Congress, highlighting moments of direct advocacy for Kansas City residents. The Caucus represents Black legislators in the Missouri Senate and the Missouri House of Representatives.
“Congressman Cleaver has earned respect from both sides of the aisle in Washington,” Johnson said. “Not through partisan games, but through his unwavering commitment to the people of Kansas City and beyond.”
The MLBC was joined at Friday’s event by county, city and state lawmakers including Missouri Reps. Wick Thomas, Emily Weber, and Will Jobe and Jackson County legislators Donna Peyton and Manny Abarca IV. Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas watched silently from the audience.
About 75 residents, community organizers and nonprofit leaders were also in attendance, with some brainstorming ideas for voicing their opposition to redistricting beyond traditional phone or email campaigns.
Because Republicans have a supermajority in the Missouri legislature, Democrats would be unable to vote down a redistricting plan on their own. A similar Trump-led effort in Texas, also marked by a Democratic minority in the legislature, has drawn national attention in recent days.
A similar attempt at gerrymandering took place in Missouri during the 2022 election cycle, when Republican state lawmakers also fought to eliminate Cleaver’s district. If successful, the move would have left Missouri with seven Republican representatives and one Democrat in Congress, rather than the current 6-2 ratio. When the effort failed, Cleaver maintained his seat with 61% of the vote.
Tactical maneuvers
Cleaver has called the proposed redistricting effort unconstitutional, saying it would be met with a strong legal challenge. He also said it risked deepening the ongoing divide between Missouri Democrats and Republicans.
Johnson echoed the sentiment Friday, saying that redistricting in Kansas City this soon after the 2022 district redraw would be “a blatant abuse of power.”
“We will not allow the voices of Kansas City to be silenced, or our communities to be carved up for political gain,” Johnson said. “The fifth district is more than the lines of a map. It is our home.”
Some also believe that Kansas City is being targeted for redistricting because it would pose less of a challenge under the federal Voting Rights Act, which affords some anti-gerrymandering protection to the large population of Black voters in St. Louis’ 1st Congressional District.
At Friday’s event, Johnson acknowledged that redistricting could be a ploy to divide or discourage Black and Latino voters specifically, but said that voters of color in Missouri are used to standing up against “fearmongering” tactics on the state level. He hinted that voters could respond by working to flip other Congressional seats across the state.
“We have an opportunity,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t always have to go in (the GOP’s) favor.”
Some lawmakers have also questioned the legality of redrawing districts when the state legislature is not in session, arguing that the Missouri Constitution prevents lawmakers from redistricting without the release of new Census data.
If the congressional district maps were redrawn, Gov. Mike Kehoe would have to summon lawmakers back to Jefferson City for a special legislative session.
Members of the Legislative Black Caucus acknowledged that if Kehoe moved forward with introducing a redistricting plan, Democrats on the state level would be unable to stop it through vote totals alone.
“We are in a superminority, so even if we all decide to go on vacation that day, we’re still going to have a quorum,” Sharp said. “But I can tell you right now, none of us are really eager to run away from this fight.” The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed reporting.
