JEFFERSON CITY, MO — Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe announced Friday that the state’s core values are fundamentally incompatible with allowing voters to choose their representatives, calling a special legislative session to redraw congressional districts in what he described as “ensuring our democracy truly reflects Missouri principles.”
The emergency session, scheduled to begin September 3rd, will focus on what Kehoe called “mid-decade values alignment” — a sophisticated term for changing electoral maps in the middle of a decade to help Republicans maintain control of Congress despite the inconvenience of actual voting patterns.
“We realized that our current districts don’t fully capture the essence of Missouri values,” Kehoe explained during a press conference held next to a map of the state that appeared to have been drawn by someone having a seizure. “True Missouri values include winning elections, maintaining power, and ensuring that urban areas don’t get too much say in their own governance.”
The redistricting effort, which comes in response to President Trump’s nationwide call for mid-decade gerrymandering, specifically targets Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City district by stretching it eastward into rural Republican areas.
The proposed map would effectively merge Cleaver’s urban Kansas City base with several rural counties that have never met a Democrat they didn’t want to vote against, creating what redistricting consultant Dr. Sarah Jensen called “a perfect example of values-based democracy.”
Cleaver responded to the redistricting plan by issuing what he called an “unconstitutional attack” on democracy, arguing that Trump’s directive represents “politicians choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives.”
State GOP officials dismissed Cleaver’s concerns as “anti-Missouri thinking.”
The special session will also address what officials call “initiative petition reform” — a euphemistic term for making it harder for Missouri citizens to overturn conservative policies through ballot measures.
Trump praised Missouri’s redistricting efforts as part of his broader campaign to encourage Republican-controlled states to redraw maps to help maintain GOP control of the House during his second term.
Political science professor Dr. Jennifer Walsh noted that Missouri’s approach represents what scholars call “aspirational democracy” — the practice of adjusting electoral systems until they produce the desired outcomes.
The redistricting plan has faced criticism from voting rights advocates who argue that mid-decade redistricting without an updated census violates democratic norms.