AT A GLANCE
- Trump and Republicans are driving mid-decade redistricting in Texas and Missouri.
- Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, say the maps disenfranchise Black voters.
- Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II in Missouri and Rep. Al Green in Texas are among those directly affected.
- Lawsuits argue the plans amount to unconstitutional race-based gerrymandering.
Trump and GOP Target Congressional Boundaries
Civil rights advocates, church leaders, and voters are warning that President Donald Trump’s redistricting push in Republican-led states threatens to strip away decades of hard-won political representation for Black communities.
In both Texas and Missouri, Republicans are pushing unusual mid-decade redraws aimed at securing more GOP seats in Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Civil rights attorneys say the maps are a textbook case of race-based gerrymandering, a practice the Supreme Court has struck down in the past.
The Rev. Emanuel Cleaver III, son of longtime Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, likened the moment to a call for a “second Civil Rights Movement.” Speaking at St. James Church in Kansas City, where his father once served as pastor, Cleaver said: “If we, the people of faith, do not step up, we are going to go back even further.”
Missouri’s Cleaver District on the Chopping Block
Missouri’s current House delegation includes six white Republicans and two Black Democrats. Under the new Republican plan, that could shift to a 7-1 GOP advantage. The state map redraw slices Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods into multiple districts, diluting Rep. Cleaver’s base.
“Politicians are denying our children the unified voice they deserve in D.C.,” said Ashley Sadowski, a Kansas City mother. Residents fear that fewer Black voices in Congress will mean cuts in federal investment for schools, infrastructure, and health care.
Rep. Cleaver, an 80-year-old Democrat seeking an 11th term, said the redistricting push fosters “intimidation and division” and warned the Kansas City area could be “cut short” in vital funding.
Texas Map Puts Black Lawmakers in Jeopardy
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new congressional map designed to secure five additional Republican seats, expanding the GOP’s advantage from 25-13 to 30-8. The map increases white-majority districts while reducing coalition districts that have historically elected Black Democrats.
Rep. Al Green, a Houston-area Democrat, was drawn out of his district entirely. On the House floor, Green called the plan “another chapter in the sinful history of Texas making it harder for nonwhites to vote or for their votes to matter.”
The NAACP has filed suit in federal court, pointing to violations of the Voting Rights Act’s protections for minority representation. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said Republicans are hiding racial animus behind claims of partisanship. “Is partisanship just the vehicle to cloak your racial animus and the outcomes you’re pursuing?” he asked.
Civil Rights Leaders Sound Alarm
The NAACP has filed parallel lawsuits in Texas and Missouri to block the maps. Johnson described the redistricting wave as an “almost civil war” over representation.
Local leaders warn the consequences could be devastating. Bishop Donna Simon of Kansas City called it “a brazen attempt to disenfranchise voters of color, poor voters and voters from immigrant communities.”
For residents like Saundra Powell, a 77-year-old retired teacher who lived through segregation, the fight feels like a frightening return to darker times. “It seems worse now than what it was,” she said. “If people don’t take it seriously, it can be taken away.”
