HOUSTON, United States

Missouri became the latest state Friday to consider redrawing congressional maps to give Republicans an advantage in the US House of Representatives, according to media outlets.

Gov. Mike Kehoe announced Friday that he has called a special legislative session next week in hopes of redrawing the state's congressional voting maps to create a new Republican seat and will debate putting a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot that would make it harder for voters to change the state constitution through the initiative petition (IP) process.

"This is about clarity for voters and ownership of our future, and I hope the legislature will work together to pass our Missouri First Map and critically needed IP reform," Kehoe said in a statement.

The move has been expected for weeks, as the political battle in Texas played out to redraw that state's congressional maps with the backing of President Donald Trump. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law Friday, which has the potential of creating five new congressional seats in the US House.

Trump has now shifted his focus to Missouri, trying to bolster the Republican Party's razor thin three-seat majority in the House of Representatives and praised Missouri's announcement.

"The Great State of Missouri is now IN," Trump posted on social media. "I'm not surprised. It is a great State with fabulous people. I won it, all 3 times, in a landslide. We're going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!"

Missouri has eight congressional districts with Republicans holding a 6-2 seat advantage over Democrats. The new map would split Kansas City, which is currently entirely in the 5th District and represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver, into three districts where Republicans would gain an electoral college edge.

Political experts said the intended result is a map where Republicans hold 90% of the state’s seats in the US House.

Missouri Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, a Democrat, said the president’s motivation for the gerrymandering push is a fear of voters seeing files related to the investigation of the late Jeffrey Epstein, an accused pedophile and sex trafficker who killed himself in a New York City jail Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial. Epstein and Trump had a well-known friendship for decades.

"If Democrats retake the House, they will release the Epstein Files, and this scares the hell out of President Trump," Beck said in a statement. "That’s why the President has ordered Missouri to rubber stamp a rigged map drawn in Washington, DC because he knows Missouri Republicans would rather protect pedophiles than say 'no' to Donald Trump."

Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of the Missouri legislature, so it is unlikely the bills will face any jeopardy of being blocked, similar to what happened in Texas. But Senate Democrats are expected to use the filibuster and other procedural maneuvers to stall the approval process.

Legal questions have arisen as to whether redistricting now would violate Missouri’s constitution, which calls for the legislature to draw new congressional districts every 10 years after new census numbers are certified to the governor. That last happened in 2022, meaning that drawing new congressional maps technically should not take place until 2032.