Gov. Mike Kehoe of Missouri on Friday called a special legislative session to redraw congressional maps in his state to favor Republicans, becoming the first Republican-led state to follow Texas and join a push from the Trump administration to help the party keep control of the House in midterm elections.
He also called for the legislature to make it harder for state residents to pass citizen initiatives after Missouri voters approved measures deeply opposed by many of the state鈥檚 conservative politicians, like enshrining a right to abortion in the Missouri Constitution.
鈥淚鈥檓 calling for a special session on congressional redistricting and initiative petition reform to ensure our districts and constitution truly reflect Missouri values,鈥� Kehoe said. 鈥淭his is about clarity for voters and ownership of our future.鈥�
Kehoe and state Republican leaders want to carve out one more Republican seat by splitting Missouri鈥檚 5th Congressional District in Kansas City 鈥� a seat currently held by a veteran Democrat, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver 鈥� over the objection of Democrats in the legislature. The map proposed by the governor Friday, which he called 鈥渢he Missouri First Map,鈥� would crack the 5th District apart while extending it into deeply Republican, and deeply rural, central Missouri.
State Rep. Michael Johnson, D-Kansas City, the chair of the Black Caucus, called the redistricting plan a 鈥渟hameful power grab.鈥�
Redistricting typically happens at the beginning of each decade, based on new census data that requires the reapportionment of House seats to match population shifts. But pressured by President Donald Trump, Republicans are breaking with tradition. On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed into law a new congressional map drawn to give Republicans as many as five new House seats. Indiana Republicans are considering their own redistricting push, as are Republican leaders in Florida.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is so far the only Democrat to have responded in kind. Under his prodding, the California Legislature this month approved a new map that could flip as many as five Republican House seats to the Democrats, though that gerrymandered map must be approved in November by California voters.
The Trump administration has lobbied Kehoe to call for redistricting and pressured Republicans in the state legislature. In late July and early August, Trump allies placed calls to multiple individual legislators in Missouri, imploring them to take up mid-decade redistricting, according to a person familiar with the calls.
This article originally appeared in .
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