These voters want to overturn Missouri's new gerrymandered congressional map
Source: NPR
October 18, 2025 9:21 AM ET
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lately, on any given day, you'll find Leann Villaluz knocking on doors around Kansas City to get people to sign a petition that would let voters decide the fate of the state's new congressional map. "There's a sense of resentment, even to regular voters who aren't as involved," Villaluz says. "We have to pick up the slack for representatives who have been elected to do their simple duty and carry out the will of the voters. Instead, they think that we don't know what's best for ourselves."
Missouri is the second state in the country, alongside Texas, to gerrymander its congressional map after President Donald Trump set off a nationwide redistricting battle in July to try to maintain control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms. Multiple other states, including North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Ohio and Kansas could soon follow. California is trying to counter the Republican effort by redistricting in favor of Democrats, if voters pass a constitutional amendment next month.
Missouri's Republican Governor, Mike Kehoe, signed the new map into law late last month. The state had six Republicans and two Democrats in Congress, but the new plan targets longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II's seat in Kansas City.
But with Villaluz and about 3,000 other volunteers, a group called People Not Politicians Missouri is working to overturn the state's new map. If they're successful in getting more than 106,000 signatures across the state by December 11, a referendum will go on the ballot in 2026 for voters to decide whether to want to keep or reject it.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/18/nx-s1-5558173/redistricting-gerrymandering-missouri-ballot-texas
= new reply since forum marked as read
