Washington — The Missouri state legislature on Friday handed a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps and doubtlessly add one other Republican-leaning Home seat, the newest state to affix a nationwide redistricting push backed by President Trump.
The state Senate handed the redistricting plan Friday, sending it to the desk of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who says he’ll signal it into regulation. The state Home handed the plan on Tuesday. Kehoe referred to as a particular session to take up redistricting final month.
The brand new map would break up up the Kansas Metropolis space, making longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s district extra conservative. Missouri would then be left with seven GOP-leaning Home districts and one Democratic-leaning seat, a shift from the state’s present Home delegation, which has six Republicans and two Democrats.
The redistricting push follows comparable mid-decade redistricting strikes by California and Texas. The nationwide gambit to reshape congressional maps comes as Republicans struggle to carry onto a razor-thin majority within the Home in subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections.
At Mr. Trump’s urging, Texas officers handed a plan to create 5 new GOP-leaning districts final month. California lawmakers rapidly responded by passing a map that might transfer 5 Republican-held seats towards Democrats, although the California plan nonetheless must be permitted by voters in a particular election this fall.
Mr. Trump lauded Missouri lawmakers for advancing the brand new map, which he stated in a Fact Social publish “will, hopefully, give us an extra Seat in Congress” and “will assist ship an extra MAGA Republican to Congress.”
“A brand new, a lot fairer, and far improved, Congressional Map, has now overwhelmingly handed each Chambers of the Missouri Legislature,” the president wrote.
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, referred to as the brand new maps “rigged” in an announcement Friday.
“Bowing to the calls for of Donald Trump, corrupt Missouri Republicans superior their mid-decade gerrymandering scheme in the present day to try to rig the midterm elections so as to salvage the weak GOP Home majority,” he stated.
Earlier than the brand new maps handed, College of Missouri professor Peverill Squire instructed CBS Information that Republicans have weighed splitting up Cleaver’s district for years — however “none of this comes with none value.” He famous that the redrawn maps are primarily based on years-old information which will have modified, and authorized challenges might comply with.
“There’s plenty of danger for the Republicans, and the one factor in the meanwhile that they stand to achieve is possibly another Home seat,” Squire stated.
Nikole Killion and
contributed to this report.
