The list of Republicans hoping to win Missouri’s gerrymandered 5th Congressional District grew by one on Thursday when state Sen. Rick Brattin joined the race.
Brattin, of Harrisonville, is making his second bid for a seat in Congress. He said at an announcement in Jefferson City that he is the conservative the district needs.
“I have done everything I possibly can to protect the innocence of children, stop the woke indoctrination that’s going on,” Brattin said. “And in spearheading those attempts, protecting our economy, protecting your checkbook, cutting your taxes, I’ve been at the forefront.”
Brattin is a two-term senator who also won election to four terms in the Missouri House and one as Cass County auditor. He is a former Marine and construction company owner.
The 5th District is attracting a big list of Republican hopefuls because of the way it was redrawn last year during a special legislative session. Missouri revised district boundaries in 2022 and in that plan, the 5th District was entirely within Clay and Jackson counties. Under the plan approved last year at the urging of President Donald Trump in an attempt to retain Republican control of the House, the district stretches east to Columbia through 14 additional counties.
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, the target in the gerrymandered map, filed for re-election to a 12th term on Monday, the first day for candidates to file for office.
The other Republicans who have filed are Sean Smith, a Jackson County legislator who ran against Cleaver in 2024; Taylor Burks, a former Boone County Clerk who ran fourth in the 4th District primary in 2022 and dropped out after a short-lived run for the 3rd District in 2024; Brett Hueffmeier, a Kansas City attorney; and Brad Patty, a retired Army mechanic from Fayette.
During his announcement, Brattin sought to align himself as closely as possible with Trump, praising his State of the Union speech from Tuesday and echoing the president’s complaints that Democrats did not stand and applaud several times when Republicans cheered.
“We saw cheering for America, saying we’re going to stand for America and all that she stands for while the Democrats literally sat there and they scoffed and they screamed and they shouted and disrupted,” Brattin said.
Democrats, for the most part, joined in the general applause given to the U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey team and military honorees. But when Trump asked the joint session to “stand up and show your support” for his immigration crackdown, Democrats who did not stand or clap.
“Isn’t that a shame. You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up,” Trump said.
Whether the districts drawn in last year’s special session will be used for the primary, or whether candidates will run in the district created in the map passed in 2022, is in the hands of Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe. He has not indicated when he will rule in the case tried on Feb. 10.
The case before Stumpe is whether the filing of a petition seeking a referendum blocks the 2025 map from taking effect.
Brattin, in an interview with The Independent after his announcement, said he expects the courts to uphold the map and deferred on what he will do if the 2022 map is used in this year’s election.
“This is the Missouri First map, and will remain that,” Brattin said. “The Legislature has the sole authority in this map-making process. So I totally believe the courts will be on our side on this.”
Brattin last ran for Congress in 2022, when he came in second in a seven-way GOP primary for the 4th District seat, earning 21% of the vote.
The map approved last year moved six counties, and part of a seventh, from the 4th District to the 5th. That list includes Johnson County, which is also part of Brattin’s 31st state Senate District and the only county he lost in the 2024 primary as he sought re-election.
Brattin does not live in the 5th District, which is not a legal requirement to run, and said he would establish a home in the district if he wins. His familiarity with voters in the portions of the district where he has run before, as well as representing one county in the state Senate, will help his campaign, he said.
“If I am victorious in this, and I believe I will be, I definitely will live in the district that I do serve,” Brattin said.
The margins in the U.S. House are razor thin and Republicans are using the gerrymandering process in Missouri and other states to gain an edge. Whether it will help maintain the GOP majority or if Democrats, who have altered lines in some states they control, take over is one of the year’s biggest political questions.
“I see what’s going on in this nation today,” Brattin said, “and it’s imperative that we get the right people elected in this constitutional republic that we love.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
