Washington, D.C. — Today, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) President, John Bisognano, and Executive Director, Marina Jenkins, provided reporters with an analysis of the extreme congressional gerrymander proposed by Missouri Republicans. A recording of their remarks can be viewed here. 

“Just three years ago, Missouri Republican legislators rejected 7-1 gerrymanders that would have carved up Kansas City like a pie, similar to the one the White House is ordering them to pursue today,” Bisognano said.

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“Nothing has changed over the past three years, except for one thing: Missouri Republicans are now choosing to listen to and follow orders from Washington instead of the people they serve,” Bisognano continued.

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“These boundaries are a result of shameless political engineering; they surgically crack and pack voters to give Republicans maximum control with minimal accountability. By splitting Kansas City and inserting urban voters into sprawling rural districts, this map forces communities with vastly different interests and needs into the same congressional districts instead of giving these communities their own districts and their own voices in Congress,” added Jenkins.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON MISSOURI’S PROPOSED GERRYMANDER:

For the past several weeks, thousands of Missourians across the Show-Me state have loudly voiced their opposition to a mid-decade gerrymander. Governor Mike Kehoe’s office has been flooded with calls from constituents demanding that their congressional districts remain unchanged, and Missourians have shown up to protests across the state, including in Clayton, Kansas City, and Jefferson City. Labor union workers and civil rights leaders in Kansas City have expressed their anger at this attempt to gerrymander. And two of Kansas City’s largest business advocacy groups have warned that keeping Kansas City together is essential to the state’s economy. 

In spite of the public backlash, Missouri Republicans are ignoring their constituents and pushing an extreme map that would turn Missouri into one of the most gerrymandered states in the country, on par with states like Texas and North Carolina.

Under the proposed map, Kansas City is split up into three congressional districts that stretch hundreds of miles into rural areas on the opposite side of the state to break apart diverse communities, divide the cities’ economic centers, and dilute the voting power of urban voters. Below is a breakdown of the affected districts:

The proposed Sixth District would begin in Northern Kansas City and stretch across the entire state to Clark County, which borders Illinois and Iowa, a distance of nearly 240 miles. 

The proposed Fifth District would stretch east from Highway 71 in Kansas City, the most diverse part of the city, past Jefferson City, and all the way to Osage and Maries counties—about 170 miles away—blending urban, diverse communities with faraway rural counties.

The proposed Fourth District would take a narrow sliver of Kansas City that hugs the Missouri-Kansas state line and stretches east to Highway 71, then pairs that urban slice with Webster County, nearly 200 miles away.

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