Missouri Latest State to Weigh House District Gerrymandering Ahead of Midterms

Red and blue states alike are gerrymandering their congressional districts in bids to create a path to a House majority for their respective political parties in the 2026 midterm elections.

The fight to control Congress has opened up debates about partisan control over redistricting and has now put pressure on state lawmakers in Missouri, amid partisan fights in Texas and California.

One of the first salvos in the gerrymandering fight was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s push to redistrict Texas to increase the number of Republican representatives it sends to Congress. Abbott’s fellow Republican in the Texas state House of Representatives, Rep. Todd Hunter, has proposed a plan that could accomplish that in the Lone Star State.

It wasn’t long before Texas’ partisan push provoked a response from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Democrat governor has discussed scrapping California’s independent redistricting commission in an effort to squeeze out more Democrat legislators there to counter Texas’ move.

That prompted Vice President JD Vance to weigh in on the topic, writing on the social media platform X, “The gerrymander in California is outrageous. Of their 52 congressional districts, nine of them are Republican. That means 17 percent of their delegation is Republican when Republicans regularly win 40 percent of the vote in that state. How can this possibly be allowed?”

Newsom replied with an insult and a picture of a map that purported to show California among the lesser gerrymandered states in the country. Princeton University’s Gerrymandering Project found the Golden State, with its current process of using an independent redistricting commission, to be better than the average state “with some bias.

Now, the White House is reportedly seeking to have Missouri also redraw its congressional maps. Missouri approved its most recent congressional district lines in 2022 after the 2020 national census, which is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

This past week, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, addressed the issue at a press conference.

“I think it’s safe to say that, in Missouri, along with other states, we’re always trying to make sure that we have as much Republican representation because we believe that’s who we are,” Kehoe said. The Missouri governor has to approve any new boundaries enacted by Missouri’s state legislature unless they overrule his veto.

Missouri Republicans are seeking to push out one of the two Democrats in the state’s eight-member congressional delegation. That would mean redrawing the map so that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., would lose his seat. The longtime Missouri congresswoman has said he will not go down without a fight. 

“I’m a football player. I play football. When you tell me you’re going to run over me, then I become a little more physical. I’m not going to just lay down,” Cleaver told Punchbowl News. He has been a member of Congress since 2005 and is a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The only other congressional district in the state represented by a Democrat is that of freshman Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo. Before entering the House in January of this year, Bell served for six years as a prosecuting attorney of St. Louis County. He defeated the far-left Rep. Cori Bush, at the time a member of “the Squad,” in the 2024 Democrat primary.

Some have expressed skepticism that the Missouri GOP would be able to accomplish its goals of squeezing out Cleaver or Bell.

“There are some things that no one, no matter how powerful or how important they are, can move through the Missouri [state] Senate,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., explained to Punchbowl.

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