The Missouri NAACP is challenging an attempt by Republican lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map and splinter Kansas City into three different districts.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Cole County, an attempt to block a special legislative session called by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts — with a focus on Kansas City. It’s the first legal challenge against the special session, which convened on Wednesday.
The lawsuit argues that Kehoe’s decision to call a special session was unconstitutional, and that his reasons for doing so — to approve a new Congressional map and change the laws around citizen initiative petitions — do not constitute an “extraordinary occasion.”
“Although the question of what an ‘extraordinary occasion’ under the Missouri Constitution has not been tested in the Courts, no governor has ever before convened the legislature based on similar facts,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also argues that the state constitution does not expressly grant Kehoe the authority to request a new Congressional map from the Missouri General Assembly without an action from Congress.
The Missouri NAACP, Kansas City resident Patricia Jones and Columbia resident Traci Wilson Kleekamp are plaintiffs in the case. The lawsuit asks a judge to block the special session from happening — and rule that that Kehoe’s calling of a special session is unconstitutional.
The map proposed by Kehoe and Missouri Republicans would carve up Kansas City and splinter votes from the 5th Congressional district into the 4th and 6th districts, lumping together urban voters into more rural districts currently held by Republicans.
Advocates criticizing the move say it would dilute the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters in Kansas City and weaken Democratic voter representation. If approved, it would turn Missouri into a 7-1 Republican dominated state — and satisfy the wishes of President Donald Trump.
“Runs directly against everything we fight for”
If Missouri Republicans prevail in their redistricting efforts, Kansas City’s Historic Northeast would be fractured into three separate Congressional districts.
Along Van Brunt Boulevard at 9th Street, a series of flags from around the world are painted along a retaining wall — a representation of the many nationalities that make up the Kansas City neighborhood.
Community leaders say the redistricting effort is a direct insult.
“This gerrymander runs directly against everything we fight for,” said Edgar Palacios, founder of local nonprofit Revolución Educativa.
Palacios gathered with elected officials, advocates with People Not Politicians Missouri and other community residents Thursday at Athletic Fields Park at the corner of 9th St. and Van Brunt Blvd. to criticize the redistricting effort.
“It says loud and clear, your voice, your community, your vote, does not matter,” he said.
Palacios called the Missouri First map a weapon.
“It dismantles the 5th District, scattering our communities into the 4th and the 6th, binding urban Kansas City residents with rural Missourians who live over 250 miles away near the Iowa border,” Palacios said. “That is not representation. That is dilution, that is erasure.”
In the proposed map, this area of the Historic Northeast in the middle of Kansas City appears to be the axis point that splits the neighborhood into three Congressional districts.
“It's not going to reflect the reality of our neighborhood,” he said. “And we're going to continue to struggle in attracting resources, financial resources, other types of services and whatnot, because it's already difficult to have the state care about our neighborhood.”
The northern area of the Historic Northeast would join the 6th district that stretches to Missouri’s northern border. The neighborhoods on the western portion of the Historic Northeast would be included in the 4th district, which goes about 150 miles south to Dade County. And the eastern portion of the Historic Northeast would be absorbed by the 5th District, which stretches east to include rural counties in the middle of the state.
Missouri Democratic Rep. Wick Thomas represents the Historic Northeast and the Westside in the legislature. If Republicans approve the Missouri First map, Thomas’s district would include three Congressional representatives.
“Where we are standing right now, the congressional district would expand east past Jefferson City,” Thomas said. “A few blocks north where I live, my congressional district would border Illinois. In (the) West Side, the congressional district would extend South almost to Joplin.”
Thomas called the gerrymandering attempt unconstitutional.
“This exacerbates those racial divides that we have fought so hard as a city to overcome — the redlining, and the racial divide of Troost — that we have made great strides to remove and to reduce that segregation,” Thomas said. “This puts it all back in place.”
Lovell Holloway, board chair of the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce, said challenging the proposed map is part of the broader fight for equality.
“I believe this is an insidious attack on District 5 and a congressman and a community that has done everything they can to be authentically Kansas City over the decades, in the history of this city,” Holloway said.
Gerrymandering Kansas City could present fresh challenges to candidates who have already filed to run for the 5th District Congressional seat. Hartzell Gray is running in the Democratic primary for the district.
Gray, who lives in the West Side, would end up running for the 4th District seat if state Republicans pass the Missouri First map, pitting Gray against Republican incumbent Rep. Mark Alford. Gray said he won’t exit the race if his district changes.
“It's so intentional, too, and the cruelty is absolutely the point,” Gray said.
