Kehoe’s signature puts the revised districts into state law with a goal of helping Republicans win one additional seat.
U.S. House districts were redrawn across the country after the 2020 census to account for population changes.
Republican lawmakers in Texas passed a new U.S. House map last month aimed at helping their party win five additional seats.
Democratic lawmakers in California countered with their own redistricting plan aimed at winning five more seats, though it still needs voter approval.
Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats.
Ferguson City, Missouri. — Missouri Gov. A new U was signed by Mike Kehoe. S. In an attempt to maintain a slim Republican majority in the upcoming congressional election, President Donald Trump signed the House map into law on Sunday.
By signing the amended districts into state law, Kehoe hopes to aid Republicans in gaining one more seat. However, it might not be the last move. If successful, the referendum petition that opponents are pursuing would compel a statewide vote on the revised map. Additionally, they have sued it multiple times.
U. S. . Following the 2020 census, house districts were redrawn nationwide to reflect changes in the population. However, Missouri is the third state this year to attempt gerrymandering, or redrawing legislative boundaries for political advantage.
Texas Republicans passed a new U.S. S. . Last month’s house map was designed to aid their party in gaining five more seats. In response, California’s Democratic lawmakers unveiled their own redistricting plan, which still requires voter approval but aims to gain five more seats. Redistricting is also being considered in other states.
Democrats need only three seats to take control of the House, which would give them the ability to block Trump’s agenda and start investigations into him, so every seat could be crucial. Trump is attempting to halt a long-standing pattern whereby the president’s party usually loses seats in midterm elections.
Missouri has eight U.S. senators, six of whom are Republicans. S. seats in the house. The Democratic U.S. holds a seat that the new map targets. A. Representative. Emanuel Cleaver by extending his district into traditionally Republican rural areas and severing parts of his Kansas City district. In his district, which he has represented for 20 years after being the first Black mayor of Kansas City, it decreases the proportion of Black and minority citizens.
Cleaver has criticized the redistricting plan for drawing dividing lines for the new districts along Troost Avenue in Kansas City, a street that has historically kept Black and white residents apart.
As a way to strengthen Missouri’s “conservative, common-sense values” in the nation’s capital, Kehoe has defended the new map.
Both sides of the political spectrum agree that Mississippians are more alike than different, and that our values are more similar than those of the states represented in Congress, such as California, Illinois, and New York. According to a statement from Kehoe, “We think this map best represents Missourians, and I appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my desk.”.
The public was not allowed to attend the event where Kehoe signed the new law.
A statewide referendum on the new map is being forced by opponents who are collecting signatures on a petition. The deadline is December. 11 to collect about 110,000 legitimate signatures, putting the map on hold until the following year, when a public vote could take place.
Opponents are meanwhile pursuing a number of legal challenges. Numerous voter lawsuits, including a recent one filed on Sunday by a Democratic-affiliated group, argue that Missouri’s constitution forbids mid-decade redistricting.
Republican lawmakers in Missouri carried out partisan orders from politicians in Washington, D.C., without being prompted by the law or a court order. The National Redistricting Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, has an executive director named Marina Jenkins.
The NAACP has already filed a lawsuit arguing that Kehoe did not have an “extraordinary occasion” to call lawmakers into session for redistricting.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit alleging that the new districts in the Kansas City area are not compact and have equal populations, as required by the state constitution. It claims the redistricting law invalidates the new map because it includes a “KC 811” voting precinct in both the fourth and fifth congressional districts.
But according to Kehoe’s office, there isn’t a mistake. It claimed that two different polling places had been given the same name by other government organizations.
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