Missouri House rejects congressional map as standoff worsens

Source: Associated Press

Missouri House rejects congressional map as standoff worsens

By DAVID A. LIEB
March 31, 2022

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri House on Thursday overwhelmingly defeated a congressional redistricting plan passed by the state Senate, intensifying a standoff that could eventually force the courts to intervene to draw new voting districts.

Although Missouri has large Republican majorities in both legislative chambers, a conservative coalition has split with GOP leaders over how aggressively to gerrymander district lines to their favor. Turf wars also have erupted over which communities to split up in order to equalize the population among all eight districts.

Missouri is the only state that has not either enacted or at least passed a new U.S. House map after the 2020 census, though uncertainty also remains in Florida because of a gubernatorial veto and in other states due to court challenges. Louisiana’s Republican-led Legislature on Wednesday overrode a veto by its Democratic governor and enacted new congressional districts.

Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats, with Democrats representing districts based in St. Louis and Kansas City. Though some conservatives had pushed for a map that could give the GOP a shot at winning seven seats, the state House and Senate each passed different versions of maps projected to continue the GOP’s 6-2 edge.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/legislature-missouri-redistricting-voting-districts-congress-90c7c56b4e0382ea7f4410859735b23c