Longtime Kansas City Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II may keep his seat after all, following the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision to nix a new congressional map written for this November’s election that carved up Kansas City to make Cleaver’s seat harder for Democrats to win.
The court ruled that the Missouri Constitution does not stop voters from weighing in on a redistricting map, which Secretary of State Denny Hoskins initially blocked from appearing on the November ballot. It also means this fall’s election cannot use the congressional map passed by Missouri lawmakers last year . Instead, Missourians will vote using the Congressional districts from the traditional post-Census 2022 redistricted map.
People Not Politicians, the statewide group leading the effort to force a statewide vote on the redrawn map, said it collected more than 300,000 signatures, clearing the required threshold.
The move undermines efforts from Republicans and President Donald Trump to shore up a GOP majority in the House of Representatives in this year’s midterms by redrawing Congressional districts. In Missouri, Republicans targeted the 5th District in the hopes of unseating Cleaver and creating a 7-1 map in favor of the GOP.
Cleaver has represented the 5th District since 2005, winning his last two elections – which used the 2022 maps – with more than 60% of the vote. In a social media post following the ruling, Cleaver said “democracy prevails.”
“Despite the cynical and deeply shameful attempt to silence many of our neighbors, the people fought back and won,” Cleaver said in the post. “This reaffirms that the people should choose their politicians, not the other way around.”
Hoskins attempted to appeal the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision on Friday, asking the justices to pause their order, but that effort failed.
In the map Republicans drew last year, the 5th District stretched from Troost Avenue, a historic racial and economic dividing line in Kansas City going back decades, nearly 200 miles east to Osage and Maries counties.
It grouped together Kansas City’s majority Black neighborhoods with whiter, more rural communities in mid-Missouri, a move that civil rights leaders and Democratic leaders decried as a blatant example of gerrymandering.
The map carved up Kansas City so the 4th District included all of Kansas City west of Troost and stretched 150 miles south to Dade County and the 6th district lumped together the portion of Kansas City north of the Missouri River up to the state’s northern border.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas praised Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling in a statement.
“The Missouri Supreme Court got it right, adhering to our Constitution and ensuring rights are protected, especially for those too often left out,” he said. “Today is a deserved loss for Washington special interests aiming to cheat Missourians of fair representation.”
‘A desperate attempt by the federal government’
Chris Goode owns Ruby Jean’s Juicery, a local business on Troost Avenue. The map last year splits the businesses and residents along that street in half, putting one side in the 5th District and the other in the 4th.
Goode criticized the redrawn map, and said it would dilute Cleaver’s constituency.
“This one is as plain as plain can get,” Goode said of the decision to use Troost Ave. as a dividing line. “It's very, very obvious what the point was, because there could have been so many other ways to try and steal this seat, but to do it down Troost Avenue, it's insult to injury.”
Goode said Cleaver is a true Kansas Citian who shows up for the city.
“He's a human that we actually are in community with, that we can trust,” Goode said. “We get to see him showing up at the events, actually listening to people, actually pushing for things that matter in our community, literally building bridges, getting projects funded.”
Missouri State Rep. Wick Thomas represents Kansas City’s West Side and Historic Northeast. The new map proposed splitting the Historic Northeast into three separate districts, which they said was ridiculous.
“The power grab was a desperate attempt by the federal government to take over Missouri elections,” Thomas said.
What’s next for November general election
The Jackson County Election Board said on Friday that it will comply with the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision and will be able to conduct the November general election using the Congressional map from 2022, according to reporting from The Kansas City Star.
In that map, the 5th Congressional District largely places Kansas City into one district.
Brattin, the Republican candidate who President Trump endorsed, won the crowded Republican primary in August, when Missourians voted based on the redrawn Congressional districts. Brattin did not respond to KCUR’s request for comment on Friday, but told KSHB 41 that his team intends to file a federal lawsuit challenging the ruling.
He told KSHB that the 5th District as it stands now is “practically unwinnable.”
“They're thumbing their nose at the legislature, the people, the president and just doing whatever the hell they want to do,” Brattin told KSHB.
