Missouri Senate passes Trump-backed plan that could help Republicans win an additional US House seat

By DAVID A LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY Mo AP Missouri Republicans handed President Donald Trump a political conquest Friday giving final legislative approval to a redistricting plan that could help Republicans win an additional U S House seat in next year s elections The Senate vote sends the redistricting plan to Republican Gov Mike Kehoe for his expected signature to make it law But opponents at once revealed a referendum petition that if profitable could force a statewide vote on the new map Related Articles Trump approves federal accident aid for storms and flooding in states Multiple Black Latino people can t get opioid addiction med Medicaid cuts may make it harder Utah s governor in impassioned remarks urges Americans to find off-ramp from political violence With Hyundai raid Trump s immigration crackdown runs into his push for foreign venture Schumer warns of a shutdown if Republicans don t accept Democrats robustness care demands Missouri is the third state to take up mid-decade redistricting in an emerging national battle for partisan advantage ahead of the midterm elections Republican lawmakers in Texas passed a new U S House map last month aimed at helping their party win five additional seats Democratic lawmakers in California countered with their own redistricting plan aimed at winning five more seats but it still requirements voter approval Each seat could be critical because Democrats need to gain just three seats to win control of the House which would allow them to obstruct Trump s agenda and launch investigations into him Trump is trying to stave off a historic trend in which the president s party typically loses seats in midterm elections Republicans at present hold six of Missouri s eight U S House seats The revised map passed the state House earlier this week as the focal point of a special session called by Kehoe Missouri s revised map targets a seat held by Democratic U S Rep Emanuel Cleaver by shaving off portions of his Kansas City district and stretching the rest of it into Republican-heavy rural areas The plan reduces the number of Black and minority residents in Cleaver s district partly by creating a dividing line along a street that Cleaver noted had been a historical segregation line between Black and white residents Cleaver who was Kansas City s first Black mayor has served in Congress for over years He won reelection with over of the vote in both and under districts adopted by the Republican-led state Legislature after the census