KCUR interview: Alford discusses redistricting, birthright citizenship, housing
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Alford’s district will look significantly different after redistricting.
- Alford praised Trump for the war in Iran and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- Alford said he would vote to overturn a potential veto of a bipartisan housing bill.
In a wide-ranging 30-minute radio interview, Rep. Mark Alford shared his thoughts about redistricting, birthright citizenship and a stalled federal housing bill.
Alford, who appeared on Up To Date on KCUR on Thursday, is running for reelection, but the makeup of his district will be significantly different from the one he won in 2024. After Republican state lawmakers heeded President Donald Trump’s call to create more Republican districts, Alford now has a slimmer partisan advantage.
In the interview, Alford shrugged at the prospect of a tougher general election and said he’s happy to campaign in the more urban districts now included in the district.
“I’m probably the only candidate who’s just as comfortable in a cornfield in Camden County as I am in the urban core of Kansas City,” Alford said.
When pressed on how he would represent the portions of his district that are strongly opposed to President Donald Trump and his agenda, Alford praised Trump for the war in Iran and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“That has dramatically, I think, saved a lot of small businesses in America. It’s given families in the urban core and other places, some of the largest tax refunds they have ever seen,” Alford said.
The show’s host, Steve Kraske, circled back to Trump later in the interview to ask Alford his thoughts on the Trump family’s cryptocurrency businesses and whether Congress should investigate him. Alford said he doesn’t support a Congressional investigation, but does want to see a ban on members of Congress from trading stocks.
“It’s already a law that says you can’t use insider information, but I’m not sure that everyone’s playing by those rules,” Alford said.
Trump is refusing to sign a significant bipartisan housing reform in retaliation against Congress for failing to pass the SAVE Act, which requires voters to provide certain documents to election authorities in order to vote.
Alford praised Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, for contributing to the legislation and called it the “most important piece of legislation dealing with housing that we’ve had in 20 years.”
If Trump vetoes the bill, Alford said he’d vote to overturn it.
Alford also commented on the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the long-standing interpretation that anyone born on American soil is an American citizen. After the 6-3 decision, Alford said it seems like the Constitution “is not that clear” on the issue and speculated that Chinese communists could engage in “birth tourism” that eventually influences elections.
“Knowing that they can return with a passport, you can build an entire voter block, if you will, of people who want to come and control the congressional district,” Alford said.
