GOP carved up Kansas City district. But who's running to unseat Cleaver?
Source: Kansas City Star
Jackson County Legislator Sean Smith was poised to launch a campaign for Congress on Thursday, marking the first major Republican to enter the race for Kansas City’s new, gerrymandered district. Smith’s announcement, expected at a campaign event Thursday evening, represents the opening salvo in the Republican fight to unseat U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who has represented Kansas City’s 5th Congressional District since 2005.
But it also comes amid lingering questions about the fate of Missouri’s congressional map, which lawmakers approved last year under pressure from President Donald Trump. A series of legal battles will decide whether the map will remain in place, potentially solidifying Republicans’ quest to unseat Cleaver or ensuring Democratic control of Kansas City’s congressional district. At the same time, opponents of the new map have launched a referendum campaign that would ask voters to strike down the map. That campaign turned in more than 300,000 signatures and local election officials are verifying whether the map will be put to a vote in November.
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