Melissa Patterson Hazley | Kansas City Star | October 11, 2026
On November 3, Proposition A will ask Missourians whether they approve the Missouri legislature’s 2025 congressional redistricting act. A yes vote approves those new congressional boundaries. A no vote leaves the congressional boundaries enacted in 2022 in place.
I’ve worked on bipartisan redistricting commissions before. Three times, in fact. Twice I participated in the process that established boundaries for Kansas City Public Schools. More recently, I was appointed by former Governor Mike Parson to Missouri’s bipartisan commission charged with drawing all 163 state House districts after the 2020 Census.
KCPS’ boundaries had to be redrawn in 2018, before the decennial census, because the General Assembly passed a law decreasing the number of seats on the school board. Then, just four years later, we had to assess the population again after new census data was collected and analyzed.
At the time, this was seen as highly controversial meddling. A legislator in Jefferson City decided a school board in Kansas City was too big and wanted to decrease elected representation. Worse, we would subject the community to two processes in four years, causing uncertainty, suspicion and a loss of confidence in government. Sound familiar?
Nevertheless, our bipartisan team held public sessions, compiled and analyzed community feedback and worked with other stakeholders to arrive at a map that we could all live with.
The Missouri State House redistricting process wasn’t easy either, although it was done in alignment with the 2020 Census and according to established norms. Overall, it was a reasonable process. Twenty people — ten Democrats and ten Republicans — had to reconcile competing ideas about representation, natural and political boundaries, communities and fairness across the state.
At first, we voted along party lines about rulemaking and even where we would travel in the state to collect feedback. But in the end, all twenty of us voted for the same map enacted in 2022. To my surprise, during that process I received a phone call from a Republican commissioner asking me about the proposed final map. He wanted to ensure Kansas City was fairly represented and that the districts we drew reflected the population. He had a particular interest in Troost Avenue and what to do with it.
East and west of Troost
He asked how the population had changed east and west of Troost and whether the boundaries we set would allow people on both sides to have their voices heard by their elected officials. This matters.
For generations, Troost has been literally and figuratively one of the most consequential dividing lines in our city. It was even used as a school boundary in ways that perpetuated segregation after Brown v. Board of Education. In modern times, a revolving door of investment, wealthy households, amenities, beautiful infrastructure, higher education and expensive private school institutions are concentrated on and west of Troost. As you can imagine, early policy inflicted wounds on the eastern side of that line which Kansas City still has not healed today.
You see, when creating districts, one major consideration is whether people with shared political interests and lived experiences are being represented fairly — rather than packed together or cracked apart in ways that diminish their voices.
I mention all of this not because any of our considerations were perfect, but because they bear almost no resemblance to what is happening with Missouri’s Congressional redistricting today.
Instead of a Jefferson City politician making consequential decisions for KCPS, Missouri took its marching orders from a Washington, D.C. politician assaulting just one congressional seat. There had been no new decennial count requiring us to rebalance population among the eight congressional districts. Yet lawmakers called a special session and adopted an entirely new congressional map in the middle of the decade. And this time no Republican asked what to do about Troost.
The 2025 map divides Kansas City among three congressional districts. Demonstrating a lack of understanding or respect for the urban core, Troost Avenue itself becomes even more divisive by striking a line between the 4th and 5th congressional districts. Communities west of Troost are joined to a district stretching south into rural Missouri. Majority-Black neighborhoods east of Troost are placed in another district extending east into rural Missouri.
Think about the absurdity of that.
I know firsthand that drawing districts requires difficult choices. There is no map that makes everyone happy. There are population requirements, legal requirements, political boundaries, communities of interest, competing ideas of what constitutes fair representation and even natural boundaries like rivers and railroads to consider.
Yes, the KCPS process was controversial, and the statewide process was hard, but that is a far cry from a complete assault on democratic norms, bipartisanship and disregard for the rule of law.
The consequences have not been theoretical. After improper map usage, demonstrated by several passes through multiple levels of the court through litigation, and widespread voter confusion, the Supreme Court of the United States has had to repeatedly assert that voters will have the final word on what happens next.
Whatever your position, understand what is before you. Look at the map. Look at what it does to Kansas City. Look at Troost. Consider whether these boundaries strengthen representation for our communities or divide them.
I have been through redistricting three times. I know it can be contentious. I know it can be political. But I know people who disagree politically can agree about fair representation, because political disagreement should not prevent diplomacy. I’m voting no on Prop A, because this process has been absurd. Consider joining me.
Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley, PhD, represents the 3rd District at-Large on the Kansas City, Missouri City Council.