After map chaos, these are the districts Missouri voters will cast ballots in

Matthew Kelly, The Kansas City Star on Sep 11, 2026

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After months of escalating chaos over the state’s congressional map, Missouri voters can be forgiven if they’re still trying to understand what will appear on their ballot in November.

Answers about Missouri’s midterms are coming into focus following the U.S. Supreme Court’s key ruling on Thursday and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ decision to back down and abide by the court’s directive.

The Show-Me State will be using the same congressional map as in 2022 and 2024, which was adopted based on demographic data from the 2020 U.S. Census.

The redrawn map lawmakers passed last September, which carves up Kansas City into three separate Republican-leaning districts, remains blocked by court order.

Missouri voters will also decide in November whether to use the new GOP-friendly congressional boundaries in 2028 and beyond. Organizers opposing the mid-decade redistricting effort collected more than 300,000 signatures and Republican officials’ push to block certification of the petition fizzled.

The legal dispute over Missouri’s map has been one of the most contentious fights in a brazenly political nationwide power struggle kicked off by President Donald Trump’s 2025 call for Republican-controlled states to maximize the odds of retaining control of the U.S. House. In response, some Democratic states have implemented their own gerrymandered maps.

Who’s in what district?

Because the redrawn map that splintered Kansas City into three congressional districts was used in last month’s primary, some voters will have the unusual experience of voting in a different race in November.

Before the mid-decade redistricting blitz, most Kansas City-area voters were represented by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, the city’s longtime Democratic congressman and first Black mayor.

Now that the effort to dilute Kansas City’s voting power has been paused by the courts, most voters in KC proper, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Grandview and Gladstone remain residents of the 5th Congressional District.

Cleaver is seeking a twelfth term in office as he competes with Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin, who sued Hoskins in federal court in an attempt to require implementation of the new map.

Republican Mark Alford is the incumbent in the 4th Congressional District, which includes the northern half of Columbia to the southern and eastern suburbs of Kansas City, including parts of Cass County and Jackson County. Alford’s Democratic opponent is Air Force Veteran Jordan Herrera.

The Sixth Congressional District stretches across northern Missouri, including parts of the Kansas City metro area north of the Missouri River, as well as St. Joseph.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Sam Graves is not seeking a fourteenth term this fall. Conservative talk radio host Chris Stigall is the GOP nominee who will square off against Democrat Josh Smead, a licensed architect and general contractor.