Redistricting accelerates St. Joseph’s loss of clout

Missouri Republicans, including those in the 6th congressional district, could get more than they bargained for in a wave of partisan redistricting sweeping the country.

As it stands now, Missouri’s 5th congressional district resembles an inverted state of Oklahoma, with a sliver in Clay County serving as a panhandle. How easy it would be to lop off that pesky appendage – which makes the district look gerrymandered -- and send its inhabitants somewhere else.

That’s exactly what Gov. Mike Kehoe intends to do with a special session called to redraw the 5^th congressional district – one of two that Democrats hold in this red state. The move is largely seen in the context of national power politics, a chance to create more GOP-friendly districts in time for the 2026 election

That’s part of it, but off-cycle redistricting has ramifications closer to home, especially in Northwest Missouri. Kehoe’s plan would send parts of the 5^th District – the Clay County panhandle and sections of Kansas City south of the Missouri River in the East Bottoms – into the solidly Republican 6^th District in Northwest Missouri.

On the face of it, this creates the potential for tighter races in a district that GOP incumbent Sam Graves has won easily for years. For some, that won’t be a bad thing, although you may think differently when the negative ads start because the 6^th District has suddenly become more competitive.

But there’s a bigger issue, one that has more to do with urban vs. rural than red vs. blue.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, the Kansas City Democrat who stands to lose his seat in all of this, says redistricting will “silence the voices” in the 5^th District.

That’s not quite right. Those voters still have a voice, but they will have to shout in the sprawling 6^th District that runs from St. Joseph to Hannibal. Over time, population trends make it inevitable that those voices in suburban Clay and Platte counties will be heard more clearly than those in St. Joseph, let alone Tarkio or Grant City.

So Republicans will likely get their 7-1 map, but at the expense of accelerating the loss of political influence in St. Joseph and other rural areas with declining populations. Over time, the 6^th will become a Clay/Platte district with everyone else hoping to get a moment with their representative now and then.

The irony here is that a 7-1 map creates the kind of districts that Republicans successfully fought to stop in the repeal of the Clean Missouri ballot measure in 2020. Clean Missouri sought to create more competitive districts, even if they broke up communities and created odd boundaries.

The GOP argued at the time that the best districts are those that are rationally drawn and keep communities together, regardless of the partisan mix.

Voters agreed. They probably still do.