Congressional map changes triggered frustration more than confusion for some Missouri voters

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Leslie Moody has strong opinions on politics. But ask her who was on the ballot for her U.S. House district in Kansas City when she voted in last month's primary, and she isn't sure, though she knew it wasn't her current representative, Democrat Emanuel Cleaver.

That's because the districts have changed fast in Missouri after the Republican-controlled legislature, encouraged by President Donald Trump, redrew its congressional map last year to give the GOP a better shot at picking up one more seat in the House as part of a multistate effort . Republicans currently hold six of Missouri's eight House seats.

A flurry of litigation and contradictory decisions followed. A U.S. Supreme Court order Thursday seems to have resolved it for November's general election, with the state going back to the map that was in place for 2022 and 2024.

That means Moody's neighborhood, which was briefly in the Republican-dominated 4th District, is back in a compact 5th District centered on Kansas City, one of the two currently represented by Democrats. The other, Trump-backed map split Kansas City into multiple districts stretching far outside the city and into areas with more conservative voters.

It all may sound confusing. But for Moody, a 70-year-old retired chemist, the main feeling is something else: frustration.

“It's plain that it's completely ridiculous,” she said.

The Trump-backed map left just two of the state's eight congressional districts unchanged.

It left just one — the St. Louis-based 1st District — likely to be dominated by Democrats.

The 5th, also currently represented by a Democrat, had the biggest change, with only about 2 in 5 voters in the old district included in the new one.

Among the new additions: residents of the state capital, Jefferson City, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) east of Kansas City.

Carolyn McDowell, a longtime Republican activist from there, said she does not like that Republican lawmakers attempted to gerrymander districts in the middle of the decade. She learned Thursday that her home — temporarily shifted from Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Onder's district to that of Democrat Cleaver — would again be back in Onder's district, which stretches eastward to suburban St. Louis.

“This is confusing for people who are running for office and for the voters,” McDowell said.

But McDowell is glad the Supreme Court blocked the use of the new districts for November.

The new map “was unconstitutional when they even thought of it,” she said.

Kay Park, president of the League of Women Voters of Missouri, said her organization did not get many calls from voters about the changing districts. But several people she did talk to felt like the redrawn map did not represent them as well as the one they had before — and which has now returned.

Ashley Sadowski has tried to follow the saga closely. She even tuned in to a state Supreme Court hearing Thursday at which judges considered whether to hold Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for not following an order to use the 2022 version of the districts.

But Sadowski has still found it nearly impossible to understand the back and forth and the switching maps.

The new maps moved Sadowski’s Kansas City home into the 4th District. Sadowski, who calls herself a progressive independent, studied the Democratic candidates carefully for the primary because she had lived in the 5th District for so long.

Now she is back in the 5th for the general election.

“It’s just astounding to me how we all showed up in August to vote on a map that wasn’t legal,” Sadowski said.

Leslie French’s home in Platte City, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City, remains in the Republican-dominated 6th district no matter which map gets used in November. But French, also a Democrat, can’t get over what has been going on.

To switch districts after they were drawn following the 2020 census is unfair and seems to be something a country not serious about a democracy would do, French said.

She said she was surprised — and thankful — that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh saw through what she called a blatant power grab and restored the earlier map.

French has been to rallies over gerrymandering and redistricting and sometimes wears a Lady Liberty costume.

“It’s embarrassing,” French said. “When we travel to foreign countries, I’m tempted to tell people I am Canadian.”

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina, and Mulvihill from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Associated Press reporter David A. Lieb contributed from Jefferson City, Missouri.