Cleaver condemns GOP redistricting: ‘Trying to redraw the nation’s conscience’
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has no intention of going meekly.
Addressing supporters Saturday in the heart of his district, Kansas City’s longtime Democratic congressman and former mayor denounced Missouri lawmakers’ plan to dilute the city’s voting power by carving it up into three Republican congressional districts.
“The government, in fact, is trying to redraw the nation’s conscience and the way this nation is going to function for our children and grandchildren,” Cleaver said during a press conference at the Heavy Construction Laborers’ Local Union 663 lodge.
“We’re going to have to stand up and say, ‘no,’” said Cleaver, who represents Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, which currently includes Kansas City and stretches north of the Missouri River and east to include Lee’s Summit, Independence and Raytown.
Afterwards, Cleaver, 80, told The Star he plans to run for reelection next year, even if Missouri Republicans’ redrawn maps manage to withstand legal challenges. Bowing out isn’t an option, he said.
“If I did that, that would be allowing them to win,” said Cleaver, who assumed office in 2005.
Under pressure from President Donald Trump to preserve the GOP’s slim majority in the U.S. House through the 2026 midterm election, Cleaver said Republicans believe disempowering Democratic-leaning areas like Kansas City is their only path to victory.
“They’re saying, ‘If we can divide enough, we might win,’” Cleaver said.
“It’s called the great replacement conspiracy, and I think it’s doing enormous damage to our community,” he said.
‘Insult to injury’
Melanie Crapisi of Kansas City attended Saturday’s press conference with her husband and their eight-month-old daughter, Juliana. Crapisi, who lives near Union Hill, said she worries about the future of her city if Republicans succeed in dismantling its political power.
“Looking at the maps that the governor rolled out, we just know that it won’t represent Kansas City and our values and what we want for our city,” Crapisi said.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called state lawmakers into a special session to gerrymander the state’s congressional map and to weaken Missouri’s initiative petition process.
Kehoe called the new boundaries “the Missouri First Map.”
State Rep. Tiffany Price, a Kansas City Democrat who was also in attendance, said the proposed maps divide the city along a faultline that represents a legacy of segregation and historic disinvestment.
The proposal that Republican lawmakers advanced on Thursday splits Kansas City on either side of Troost Avenue, siphoning residents to the west into Missouri’s 4th Congressional District. It draws residents to the east of Troost into an unrecognizable 5th District that stretches to central Missouri and includes voters in Jefferson City, Maries County and Osage County.
“They are taking away the Black vote, the Black voice,” Price said. “And insult to injury, it’s going right down the Troost divide line.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” she said. “Hey, let’s go target Cleaver, one of our two Black congresspersons, and then let’s go down the racially divided line that Kansas City always had an issue with.”
Price, who first met Cleaver when her fourth-grade class took a field trip to City Hall for his inauguration as mayor, said his leadership has propelled Kansas City forward. “He represents everyone.”
Yuri Ito, who lives in Lee’s Summit, said she doubts the redrawn Fifth District would elect a Kansas City resident, given the rural interests of many of its new voters.
“(Cleaver) has been in office a really long time, but I do believe he’s going to represent the needs of the multiracial fabric that’s Kansas City more than anybody else who perhaps is going to come from rural Missouri when you look at the whole gerrymandered (map),” Ito said.
“It’s to nobody’s good in this metropolitan area to be spread so thin, you know, in a district (that stretches) four hours east of us.”
She said she hopes the brazenly partisan redistricting effort will mobilize residents who care about their community but haven’t been heavily engaged in the political process.
“I think the voices of the people are starting to be heard, and maybe the Democratic Party has just really never had to fight so hard,” Ito said.
“We can’t play nice.”
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 5:50 PM.
