GOP carved up Kansas City district. But who’s running to unseat Cleaver?
Jackson County Legislator Sean Smith was poised to launch a campaign for Congress on Thursday, marking the first major Republican to enter the race for Kansas City’s new, gerrymandered district.
Smith’s announcement, expected at a campaign event Thursday evening, represents the opening salvo in the Republican fight to unseat U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who has represented Kansas City’s 5th Congressional District since 2005.
But it also comes amid lingering questions about the fate of Missouri’s congressional map, which lawmakers approved last year under pressure from President Donald Trump. A series of legal battles will decide whether the map will remain in place, potentially solidifying Republicans’ quest to unseat Cleaver or ensuring Democratic control of Kansas City’s congressional district.
At the same time, opponents of the new map have launched a referendum campaign that would ask voters to strike down the map. That campaign turned in more than 300,000 signatures and local election officials are verifying whether the map will be put to a vote in November.
Those legal questions have sparked hesitation among the field of potential Republican candidates. Five months after lawmakers redrew the map, slicing Kansas City into three GOP-friendly districts, Smith would represent the sole elected officeholder to enter the race.
Together, the ongoing legal battles, the potential referendum to strike down the map and the looming race for the 5th District will mark a pivotal moment for Kansas City, potentially altering the city’s political makeup for years.
Republican consultants, in interviews with The Star this week, acknowledged that uncertainty about the map has played a role in the lack of candidates. Candidate filing opens next week. But they also conveyed optimism in the gerrymandered map remaining in place, suggesting that a number of candidates could announce soon.
“It creates uncertainty,” James Harris, a Republican consultant, said of the ongoing legal battles. “But I think once filing opens, the probability of the map reverting declines.”
Before Smith’s expected announcement on Thursday, two relatively unknown political newcomers — Robert Foltz and Brett Hueffmeier — had already launched campaigns. Even with those announcements, a top Missouri political scientist acknowledged that he was not aware of any major candidate entering the race.
“My guess is that everyone serious is waiting to see what happens with the court cases to see what the districts will be,” said Peverill Squire, a political scientist at the University of Missouri, who added that the hesitation could work to Cleaver’s — and Democrats’ — advantage.
Squire framed the current political environment as favorable for Democrats.
“(Some) of the higher profile Republicans who might have jumped into the race when the governor signed the new maps into law may be having second thoughts,” he said.
Republicans maintain a firm grip on Missouri politics, however. Consultants who spoke with The Star suggested there was a long list of potential candidates waiting in the wings. Several names have been floated in GOP circles as likely candidates, including Sen. Rick Brattin, Sen. Kurtis Gregory and Taylor Burks, a former Boone County clerk.
“There is always a large number when a seat like this comes open; there are always a large number of people who end up getting into it,” said Gregg Keller, another Republican consultant.
Keller added that sometimes candidates without much political experience emerge from left field. He pointed to the election of U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, who was elected to Congress after a career as a Kansas City news anchor.
Republicans weigh 5th District
If Missouri’s new map remains in place, the candidates for the 5th District would have to represent a broad swath of urban, suburban and rural voters.
The gerrymandered district would stretch east from Kansas City’s Troost Avenue to the rural cities and towns spread across central Missouri. It combines the voters in eastern Jackson County with voters in places hours away, like Jefferson City, Maries County and Osage County.
Ahead of his expected announcement on Thursday, Smith told The Star that he was committed to running for the 5th District regardless of which map was in place in November. Smith previously ran against Cleaver in 2024 under the state’s previous map, losing to the congressman by nearly 24 percentage points.
“We’ve got problems in D.C.,” Smith said in an interview. “I have a track record in my private industry life, and then now my brief elected service over the last few years, of actually solving problems.”
Smith was poised to officially announce his candidacy at a campaign event in Independence. Missouri House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, is scheduled to attend.
Two other names floated in Republican circles include Brattin and Gregory, two state legislators in the Missouri Senate. Brattin was a prominent member of the Senate’s right-wing Freedom Caucus until he left last year, while Gregory, a former Mizzou and NFL football player, was the sponsor of Missouri’s stadium-financing plan for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.
Tom Estes, Brattin’s chief of staff, confirmed in an interview on Wednesday that the Harrisonville Republican was “strongly considering” running for the district.
Meanwhile, Gregory told The Star at the Missouri Capitol that his team was “still exploring our options” and had “not completely ruled out” launching a congressional campaign.
Another potential candidate is Burks, the former Boone County clerk who previously ran an unsuccessful campaign for Missouri’s 4th Congressional District in 2022. Burks confirmed his interest in an interview on Wednesday.
“As of right now, there’s no strong candidate from mid-Missouri who is looking at this race and so we’re now kicking tires, seeing where past supporters are on this race and we’ll make a decision pretty soon,” Burks said.
Six hours after this story published, Burks officially launched his campaign.
Political newcomer Brad Patty, a U.S. Army veteran, marks a fourth potential candidate. Patty also confirmed his interest in an interview with The Star, saying that he was “strongly considering” launching a campaign.
Patty, who said he recently retired from the military and lives in Fayette, said he has spoken with politicians and campaign managers about a potential campaign.
“I just wanted to continue serving by representing the people of Missouri,” he said.
Two other candidates have officially announced: Foltz and Hueffmeier. Foltz, from Raytown, has filed federal paperwork to run, but did not appear to have an active online presence as of this week.
Hueffmeier’s campaign, in a campaign flyer sent to The Star, described him as a university professor, business executive and education administrator.
“Brett is driven by the desire to help others achieve,” the flyer said. “He aspires to public service because he believes he has a new vision to lead the 5th Missouri Congressional District toward ambitious renewal.” In a follow-up phone interview, Hueffmeier framed himself as a serious contender for the seat. He said he and his team have been planning their campaign for “quite a while.”
“We do have a lot of support,” he said. “And we are able to raise quite a substantial amount of money and I think...at the end of this quarter, you’ll see that.”
Cleaver reaffirms candidacy
As Republicans weigh whether to jump into the race, Cleaver has remained committed to running for reelection regardless of how the legal battles play out.
Cleaver reiterated that commitment in a statement to The Star on Wednesday.
“Like all of my campaigns, we will run a robust campaign communicating to voters the accomplishments and experiences brought to representing all of the constituents in the 5th District,” Cleaver said, touting the recent passage of a federal housing law.
Kansas City’s longtime congressman went on to address the political makeup of the gerrymandered 5th District, suggesting that he was prepared to campaign in the rural parts of the state that he’s had to win over in previous elections.
“Many forget for a decade the 5th District included Saline and Lafayette Counties where there are a lot of friends and supporters,” Cleaver said. “It is about connecting with the voters – not rural vs. urban areas.”
Fate of Kansas City’s district
Amid the political wrangling, one looming legal case could decide the fate of Kansas City’s congressional representation.
A lawsuit from the ACLU of Missouri alleges top Republican officials illegally enacted the map in violation of decades of court rulings and precedent. The suit seeks to strike the state’s decision to allow the map to take effect even though the referendum campaign turned in more than 300,000 signatures to force a statewide vote on it.
A decision in that case will decide which map will be in effect for the upcoming midterm elections, a ruling that would have major ramifications for candidates running for the 5th District.
Chuck Hatfield, an attorney involved in lawsuits to strike down the map, framed the suit as the most important barometer in the fight against Missouri’s new districts. Hatfield said Missouri’s legal argument that it could implement the map after the campaign turned in signatures is not how state law has been interpreted since the Missouri Constitution was ratified in 1945.
“They’re changing the way our state has treated referenda forever,” Hatfield said. “So that’s why they should not be optimistic.”
But, for the Republicans weighing whether to jump into the race, some are still attempting to convey that optimism.
Smith said he’s spoken with attorneys and judges as part of his own analysis of whether the new, gerrymandered map will remain in place for the upcoming election.
“At this point, it’s going to be the map for ‘26, is what they all seem to believe,” he said.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 10:15 AM.
