Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard winds through the East Side of Kansas City, Mo., where world-famous barbecue restaurants mix with empty lots. It speeds past Troost Avenue, the traditional dividing line of the Black and white sides of town. And it continues to the doorstep of the Country Club Plaza, home to lavish fountains, Spanish architecture and upscale shops.
But if Republicans get their way, Cleaver Boulevard will soon lie partly outside of Mr. Cleaver’s congressional district. And Mr. Cleaver, a Democrat who was Kansas City’s first Black mayor, could find himself out of a job after 11 terms in Washington and nearly half a century in politics.
The Missouri Senate approved the redrawn district lines on Friday and sent the legislation to the desk of Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican who supports redistricting and is expected to sign the new map into law. Missouri’s push to remake its congressional boundaries is part of President Trump’s national campaign to redistrict outside of the usual once-a-decade cycle — a strategy designed to help Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.
Just as in Texas, where Republicans passed a map this summer that is expected to flip five Democratic seats, and in Indiana, where the White House has pushed for a special mapmaking session, Democrats in Missouri are outnumbered and limited in what they can do to slow the president’s agenda.
“It’s just like more gasoline on the fire,” Mr. Cleaver said, “that was burning down much of the progress that we had made.”
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