When Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a Trump-aligned congressional redistricting plan last month, critics warned it would do more than tilt elections toward Republicans — it could determine the fate of abortion rights, Medicaid and other key issues affecting Missourians’ health and economic well-being.
If the plan survives legal and ballot challenges, it would erase one of Missouri’s two Democratic strongholds — both currently represented by Black congressmen — and shift power toward Republican lawmakers who have led efforts to roll back reproductive rights and shrink Medicaid.
The map splits Kansas City’s 5th Congressional District, dividing Black neighborhoods and merging them into distant, Republican-leaning districts, a change that could weaken the influence of Black and urban voters.
Dr. Kendra Holmes, president and CEO of Affinia Healthcare, said the redistricting plan poses a direct threat to health-care access.
“Gerrymandering that impacts urban and poor districts like St. Louis will dilute the political power of communities with greater health needs, making it harder for us to advocate for resources,” Holmes said. “My greatest concern is Medicaid. Redistricting will shift power further to Republicans who have historically pushed to restrict or shrink Medicaid … which would strip Missouri’s most vulnerable residents of essential care and destabilize the state’s safety-net system.”
Missouri’s ongoing debate over abortion rights underscores what’s at risk. In the 2024 general election, voters approved Amendment 3, a ballot initiative that preserved a right to “reproductive freedom” in the state constitution and overturned a near-total abortion ban. The Republican-led legislature has since approved its own measure to put another abortion referendum on the 2026 ballot — a move that reproductive-rights advocates see as an attempt to reverse the will of voters.
Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said the redistricting plan is part of a coordinated effort to silence voters.
“The attacks on fair maps, on our right to the ballot box, and on our fundamental bodily autonomy, are all one and the same,” Schwarz told The American.
Democracy and representation
Although the redrawn map is law for now, several organizations are working to overturn it, either in court or through a statewide referendum.
People Not Politicians, a Missouri coalition that says voters — not politicians — should drive political representation, is gathering signatures for a referendum on the 2026 ballot to block the new map. The group filed its petition with the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office on Sept. 15, allowing it to collect more than 110,000 signatures from registered voters by Dec. 11. If successful, the question of whether to approve the new map would go before voters statewide in November 2026.
Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, said the goal is “to protect a democracy that is accountable to voters.” During the legislative session, he argued, Republican lawmakers weren’t operating in the best interest of Missourians.
“They weren’t talking about what voters needed, whether it was tornado relief, access to good jobs, quality healthcare, fully funded schools, safe roads and bridges … none of that came up,” von Glahn said. “It was simply about what politicians want. And that’s endemic of the problem … when politicians’ desires are prioritized over voters.”
Legal and legislative challenges
State Rep. Marty Joe Murray said the redistricting law “shows blatant disregard for fairness, accountability, and the Constitution itself.” He added that signing the map into law serves as “a direct attack on the democratic principles this state and country were built on. This isn’t about Missouri values; it’s about political manipulation.”
The map has already prompted multiple legal challenges. The Missouri NAACP filed a lawsuit last month arguing that Kehoe’s call for a special legislative session to redraw districts was unconstitutional and that “partisan gerrymandering” dilutes the voting power of Black residents in Kansas City and St. Louis.
The ACLU of Missouri filed a separate suit focusing on Kansas City-area districts, saying the new map violates state constitutional requirements for equal population and compactness.
Residents of Kansas City’s 5th District — represented by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005 — are among the plaintiffs. Terrence Wise, a Missouri Workers Center leader who has lived in the city his entire life, said the new lines threaten his community’s voice.
“Voting is an important tool in our toolbox, so that we have the freedom to make our voices heard through a member of Congress who understands Kansas City’s history of racial and economic segregation along the Troost divide, and represents our needs,” Wise said in an ACLU release. “If our communities are needlessly split by these new lines, we would no longer see our strong values reflected in the priorities of our congressional representatives.”
Gillian Wilcox, director of litigation for ACLU Missouri, said, “In a blatant illegal and unconstitutional power grab, the governor bowed to the whims of Washington while sacrificing representation in both urban and rural populations of Missouri.”
Ming Cheung, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, said the move was politically motivated.
“Voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around,” Cheung said. “No matter how the state spins it, Kansas City voters will have worse representation in Congress if this map is allowed to take effect.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.