Missouri governor gathered top lawmakers to talk Trump’s gerrymandering push
As speculation ramped up that Missouri could soon enter a national redistricting effort spearheaded by President Donald Trump, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe quickly assembled the state’s top legislative leaders for a private meeting.
The meeting, scheduled by Kehoe’s staff late last month and held in Jefferson City on Friday, Aug. 1, involved a discussion about the redistricting push, according to copies of emails obtained by The Star through a public records request.
One email makes clear that the meeting was for “principals only, no staff.”
The records obtained by The Star, which include emails between staffers for Kehoe and the lawmakers, suggest that momentum could be building for a special session that would plunge Missouri into a redistricting frenzy on the heels of a similar effort in Texas.
On the same day Kehoe’s staff invited the lawmakers to the meeting, his communications staff also crafted a draft statement to send to constituents who had questions about the redistricting push.
“Governor Kehoe and his team are aware of the redistricting efforts in Texas and the calls for a special session in Missouri,” Gabby Picard, Kehoe’s director of communications, said in the email on July 29. “Discussions are always being held to ensure that conservative Missouri values are represented in Washington. Governor Kehoe will always consider options that provide congressional districts that best represent Missourians.”
Picard, who serves as Kehoe’s spokesperson, has sent similar versions of that statement to various media outlets, including The Star, over the past week.
The meeting came as Trump’s political team has put pressure on Republicans to gerrymander their states’ U.S. House maps so Republicans can pick up additional seats. The likely move in Missouri would involve carving up U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Democratic-leaning 5th District, which includes almost all of Kansas City and some of its suburbs in Jackson and Clay counties.
Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin and House Majority Leader Alex Riley were scheduled to attend the meeting in person, the emails showed. House Speaker Jonathan Patterson and Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, who represent portions of the Kansas City area, planned to call into the meeting.
When asked about the result of the meeting on Friday, O’Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican, said that she and her fellow Republican lawmakers would “follow Governor Kehoe’s decision” on whether to call a special session to redraw Missouri’s congressional districts.
“He wanted some time to consider his decision,” O’Laughlin said in a text message. “So we are waiting to see what that decision is.”
O’Laughlin said she believed a special session in Missouri was likely, before adding that she was not the one who would make that call. When asked whether Cleaver’s 5th District was the focus of the meeting, O’Laughlin said lawmakers “didn’t really talk about that.”
Missouri lawmakers are not currently in their annual legislative session, which runs from January through mid-May. Kehoe would have to call lawmakers back to Jefferson City in a special session if he wants them to redraw the map before the 2026 election.
Kehoe, in response to questions from The Star and other reporters last week, expressed interest in the redistricting effort but did not say whether he would call a special session.
“We want to keep the House in Republican control,” Kehoe said on Tuesday. “We’ll work with our leadership group and see if there’s a path or something that makes sense for Missourians.”
Other Republican lawmakers invited to the meeting, Luetkemeyer, who hails from Parkville, Patterson from Lee’s Summit and Riley from Springfield, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The potential redistricting effort has faced fierce backlash from opponents, including Democratic lawmakers from the Kansas City area. They view the attempt as brazen, undemocratic and potentially illegal. Cleaver has said it would be met with a strong legal challenge.
Republicans currently control six of the state’s congressional districts and Democrats hold the 5th District in Kansas City and the 1st District in St. Louis, under maps lawmakers approved just three years ago. Congressional districts are typically only redrawn once every decade based on population changes released from the U.S. Census Bureau.
This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 5:02 AM.
