Role: Governor of Missouri (since January 2025)
Category: State Governors / Republican Governors

Background

Born: 1963
Career: Kehoe had a career in the automobile dealership business before entering politics
Political career:

• Missouri State Senator (2010–2017)
• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri (2017–2025)
• Governor of Missouri (January 2025–present); succeeded Mike Parson, who was term-limited

Trump Alignment

Direct Trump coordination on redistricting: On August 21, 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social that “Missouri was ready to redraw its congressional districts.” This public statement preceded and helped catalyze Kehoe’s decision to call a special session.

Special session (August 2025): Missouri state legislators had already been calling for redistricting; Trump’s Truth Social post added national visibility and political pressure. Kehoe called a special session at the end of August 2025.

Map passage and signing: The Missouri State House voted to advance the new map on September 9, 2025; the Senate followed. Kehoe signed the Trump-backed congressional redistricting map into law on September 28, 2025.

“Missouri First” map (May 2026): Cook Political Report noted (May 2026) that the “Missouri First” map was upheld, putting Missouri’s 5th District into solid Republican territory.

Immigration Enforcement

State-level enforcement cooperation: Kehoe has maintained Missouri’s alignment with Trump’s immigration enforcement priorities. Missouri agencies have been directed to cooperate with ICE enforcement operations.

Legislative agenda: As governor, Kehoe has supported the state Republican legislature’s immigration restriction measures and aligned with the Trump administration’s enforcement framework.

Redistricting

August 2025 special session: After Trump’s public urging, Kehoe called a special session to redistrict Missouri’s congressional maps mid-decade. The explicit goal was to give Republicans an additional House seat.

Map signed September 28, 2025: The resulting map was designed to add a Republican seat to Missouri’s congressional delegation by reconfiguring existing districts.

Legal challenges:

• NAACP lawsuit: The NAACP filed a case challenging the redistricting, arguing that the governor only has constitutional authority to call a special session for “extraordinary occasions” and that partisan redistricting did not meet that standard
• Multiple additional challenges: Legistorm reported “a variety of legal challenges” filed against the maps

Veto referendum: The map’s passage “set the stage for a veto referendum in the November 2026 election” — meaning Missouri voters will have an opportunity to override the maps at the ballot box. Democrats filed multiple lawsuits to delay the map’s use until the referendum’s results are known.

May 2026 status: As of May 2026, the “Missouri First” map was standing per Cook Political Report, though legal proceedings were continuing.

TRC Relevance

Pattern documentation: Missouri’s redistricting is part of a coordinated national pattern of mid-decade gerrymandering at Trump’s direction. The specific sequence — Trump Truth Social post, special session call, map passage, NAACP lawsuit — should be documented as a case study in how the national redistricting campaign operated in individual states.

Special session constitutional limits: The NAACP’s challenge to Kehoe’s constitutional authority to call a special session for partisan redistricting raises important questions about the limits of gubernatorial power that deserve a full legal record.

For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering

On August 21, 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social that “Missouri was ready to redraw its congressional districts.” Kehoe called a special session shortly after. He signed the new map September 28, 2025. The NAACP subsequently challenged whether Kehoe had constitutional authority to call a special session for partisan redistricting — the Missouri constitution limits special sessions to “extraordinary occasions.” Missouri voters will have the opportunity to vote on the maps in a referendum in November 2026.

Here’s a question worth sitting with: The Missouri constitution gives the governor authority to call special sessions for “extraordinary occasions.” The NAACP’s challenge argues that mid-decade partisan redistricting is not an “extraordinary occasion” — it is a routine political exercise being conducted for partisan advantage at the direction of a president in Washington. Kehoe called the session days after Trump posted on Truth Social that Missouri “was ready.” The sequence — presidential post, gubernatorial response, special session — raises a direct constitutional question about the limits of gubernatorial authority: when a governor calls a special session for an action that a president publicly declared should happen, is the governor exercising independent constitutional authority or functioning as an instrument of the federal executive? What does your answer mean for the concept of state sovereignty?

A second question: Missouri voters will vote in November 2026 on whether to uphold or overturn the maps that Kehoe signed. This is one of the few states where the redistricting campaign faces direct democratic accountability — a voter referendum on the maps themselves. If you believe voters should have a voice in how their districts are drawn — the Missouri referendum is the mechanism for exactly that. The maps that Kehoe signed at Trump’s direction will be tested against the will of Missouri’s voters. What do you think the referendum will show about whether Missouri voters endorse the redistricting that was done in their name?

Sources

• St. Louis Public Radio (map signing): https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics/2025-09-28/kehoe-signs-trump-backed-congressional-map-into-law-as-legal-challenges-continue
• Wikipedia (2025 Missouri redistricting): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Missouri_redistricting
• Legistorm (redistricting overview): https://info.legistorm.com/blog/how-will-redistricting-impact-congress
• Cook Political Report: https://www.cookpolitical.com/redistricting/2025-26-mid-decade-map
• Ballotpedia: https://ballotpedia.org/Redistricting_ahead_of_the_2026_elections