JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A bipartisan group of Missouri state senators advanced a congressional map to the Senate floor Tuesday that preserves Kansas City’s safe Democratic seat, as conservative activists pressed lawmakers to gerrymander the district for the GOP instead.
Kansas City Democrats Barbara Washington and Greg Razer joined seven Republicans in supporting the map, which is expected to retain the current six Republican and two Democratic seats. Opposing it were Democrats who want a “5-3” map with an additional Democratic seat, and hard-line Republican senators in the self-styled Conservative Caucus who are calling for a “7-1” map.
The latter proposals would carve up parts of Kansas City’s current 5th District and move them into more rural, Republican districts, likely pushing out nine-term incumbent Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat. The state’s other Democratic district, represented by Rep. Cori Bush in St. Louis, is exempt from such drastic changes because it is a majority-minority district protected by the federal Voting Rights Act.
