A top Missouri GOP state lawmaker says her Republican governor is actively looking into redistricting the state. She offered as his motivation a desire to preserve its “Christian conservative majority.”
Governor Mike Kehoe “will always consider options that provide congressional districts that best represent Missourians,” his spokesperson, Gabby Picard, said, according to Bloomberg News.
A redistricting plan, spurred by President Donald Trump’s directive to Texas that he wants an additional five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, would be enacted through a special session of the Missouri state legislature, should Governor Kehoe decide to call lawmakers in.
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But Missouri’s Republican Senate president pro tem, State Senator Cindy O’Laughlin (photo), attributed a somewhat different motivation to the Governor.
“He wants to be sure Missouri’s representation matches Missouri’s Christian conservative majority,” Senator O’Laughlin said, according to Bloomberg.
Politico on Wednesday noted that Republicans already control six of the state’s eight House seats. Redistricting the Show Me State would reportedly eliminate Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s seat. Cleaver, a former Chair of the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, has served in the House of Representatives since 2005.
Governor Kehoe spoke about redistricting with a local Fox affiliate this week.
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“Is Missouri represented properly in Washington, D.C., and, quite frankly, what can we do to support President Trump’s agenda?” he said. “And Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, who’s done a very good job.”
Fox 2 reported that the Trump White House reportedly has “pressured” Missouri Republicans to redraw their state’s maps.
O’Laughlin told KSSZ-93.9 that conversations often focus on “how do we stop progressives from coming into our state and naming a person and then pouring the money into our state to try to pass something.”
She added that seeing what “happens when Democrats are in control at the federal level” is “frightening.”
Her Senate bio says that prior to “being elected to the Missouri Senate, Sen. O’Laughlin served as a school bus driver, an administrator at a local Christian school and as a member of her local school board.”
Watch Fox2’s report below or at this link.