Missouri lawmakers pass new congressional map that could help Republicans flip a House seat
The Missouri state Senate voted on Friday to pass the bill with a new congressional map that favors Republicans, sending it to Gov. Mike Kehoe's desk and notching Republicans a second win in their efforts to redraw congressional maps to favor the GOP, although the maps are facing a new legal challenge as well.
The Missouri House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to pass the map. President Donald Trump had encouraged the state to redraw its congressional lines mid-decade, and Kehoe proposed a map in late August as what he said was a way to more fairly represent Missourians. The new map would likely allow Republicans to hold seven of Missouri's eight congressional seats, of which Democrats currently hold two.
It is possible that implementing the map may be decided by voters, as opponents of the congressional map bill can try to gather enough signatures in most of the state’s congressional districts to force a statewide vote on the bill.
During hours of debate on Friday, which Republicans eventually shut down using a procedural move, Democrats continued to slam the new map as detrimental to voters – particularly for voters in Kansas City, Missouri, which would be split among multiple districts. One Republican said he would vote against the map because the Senate did not have enough time to look at the provisions in the bills it is considering.
Democratic state Sen. Barbara Washington, who represents part of Kansas City and is close with U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, whose seat is redrawn in the new map to be much more favorable to Republicans, alleged that the new map dilutes the political power of Black voters and hurts their communities.
"You don't like our voice, so you're trying to take it away. You don't like our power, so you're trying to dilute it. You don't like our community strength, so you're attempting to weaken it," she said.
"We haven't even had the opportunity to talk about why, the why behind the new map, the why behind Republicans deciding to erase Kansas City voters and to erase Kansas City values… in this map, Kansas City is erased," Democratic state Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern said earlier.
One Republican Senator, state Sen. Mike Moon, said he would not support the congressional map, decrying the process in the Senate and how it seemed as if the bill was being pushed through because of pressure from Trump.
Addressing his constituents, Moon said that he is "probably alone as a Republican. I don't know if someone else will join me in this," and would vote no on the bills because the Senate has not debated and deliberated enough on parts of them. "It's not because I don't want Republican ideals to win the day," he said, but because he's not "a yes man."
During a hearing on Thursday by the Missouri Senate's Local Government, Elections and Pensions committee on the proposed new congressional map, Cleaver framed the new map as discriminatory and as fanning the flames of a mid-decade redistricting war.
"There's already a plan for California to respond, then another state's going to respond, then New York is going to respond, then another state's going to respond, and then Maryland is going to respond," Cleaver said.
"Democrats have said, you know, we're going to fight fire with fire, and that's exactly what's going to happen. But I want to warn all of us, if you fight fire with fire long enough, all you're going to have left is ashes."
The congressional map is expected to be fought over in court. ABC affiliate KMIZ reported that voters in districts impacted by the map filed a lawsuit on Friday in the circuit court of Cole County, Missouri, asking for a judge to declare the map unconstitutional and to stop the Secretary of State from using the new districts in future elections.
ABC News' Grace Sandman and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
