Missouri Supreme Court upholds Kansas City's gerrymandered map in win for Trump

Kacen Bayless, The Kansas City Star on May 12, 2026

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The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the state’s gerrymandered congressional map in a pair of landmark rulings that ease a path for Republicans to unseat Kansas City’s longtime Democratic congressman.

The first unanimous ruling found that the map itself, which carves up Kansas City, was legal and did not violate the state constitution. The second ruling, which was also unanimous, found that the map was not currently blocked even though a campaign turned in signatures to force a statewide vote on it.

Together, the two rulings mean that, as of now, the map will be in effect for the upcoming August primaries and the Nov. 3 election. The decisions handed a major win to President Donald Trump, who leaned on Missouri Republicans to redraw the map amid a nationwide redistricting fight over U.S. House seats.

The lightning-fast rulings came just hours after oral arguments in a trio of cases over the map. In court Tuesday morning, attorneys for the ACLU of Missouri and the National Redistricting Foundation urged the state’s seven Surpreme Court judges to block or strike down the map.

The new map, signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe last year, splits Kansas City voters into three Republican-leaning districts. The goal of the effort was to oust U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by carving up his 5th Congressional District in Kansas City.

The new boundaries carved more than 70,000 minority residents out of Cleaver’s district and used Troost Avenue, Kansas City’s historic racial dividing line, to split up the districts.

It marked an overt example of partisan gerrymandering, a term used to describe the practice of redrawing electoral district boundaries to favor one party over another.

Barring any major changes, Cleaver will be forced to campaign in a district that stretches east from Troost Avenue to the rural cities and towns spread across central Missouri. It combines the voters in eastern Jackson County with voters in places hours away, like Jefferson City, Maries County and Osage County.

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