Facing fierce opposition, Missouri governor will sign new congressional map
Facing a trio of lawsuits and an opposition campaign, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s office said the Republican governor will sign the state’s new congressional map into law on Sunday.
Kehoe’s office announced his upcoming signature in a press release Thursday afternoon. Kehoe will sign the legislation, which will take effect Dec. 11, during a closed-door ceremony on Sunday, his office said.
“After a thorough bill review process with our team, I am prepared to officially sign the Missouri First Map into law,” the Republican governor said in a statement, referring to the name coined by Missouri Republicans.
Kehoe’s signature, which was widely expected, will come more than two weeks after Republican lawmakers approved the map during a pivotal special legislative session aimed at representative and direct democracy in Missouri.
The map carves Kansas City into three Republican-leaning districts, an overt example of partisan gerrymandering or the practice of redrawing electoral district boundaries to favor one party over another.
The Republican governor called the session as President Donald Trump has pressured Republican-led states to redraw their districts mid-decade to ensure GOP control of Congress in 2026. In Missouri, Republicans are hoping to push out Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
But the map faces an onslaught of attacks in the courtroom and, potentially, the ballot box.
Three separate lawsuits seek to block it from taking effect, while opponents are collecting signatures to hold a statewide referendum that would ask voters to strike down the map.
Chuck Hatfield, a prominent attorney who is suing over the map and represents the campaign pushing for the referendum, questioned why Kehoe took so long to sign the legislation.
Hatfield pointed to the fact that Kehoe’s office has said repeatedly that his office drafted the map amid questions over whether it was drawn by Republicans in Washington, D.C.
“I thought the governor had been clear that his office drafted the bill, so I’m not sure what it is that they were thoroughly reviewing all this time,” Hatfield said in an interview. “But, I mean, now that it’s signed, we can get on with the referendum and the lawsuits.”
The map also faces intense pushback over an alleged error that could affect more than 800 Kansas City voters.
A lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Missouri and the Campaign Legal Center argues the map assigns one Kansas City voting precinct to two separate congressional districts and two representatives in Congress and should be struck down.
Kehoe, however, has pushed back on the argument. The Republican governor’s office argues that there are two distinct precincts in Kansas City with the same name and the map “properly placed” one in the 4th District and the other in the 5th District.
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 2:08 PM.
