Congressional redistricting will take center stage when the Missouri General Assembly reconvenes Jan. 5, 2022. Every 10 years, once the U.S. census is complete and population data down to the neighborhood block has been gathered, sorted and provided to the state, new congressional district lines are drawn by the state legislature.

This time around, Missouri will get eight congressional districts, the same number of districts the state has had over the last 10 years. Missouri had nine congressional districts between 1992-2011, but because the state population did not grow on par with other states, Missouri lost a congressional district in 2012.

There is fierce jockeying for two of the state’s eight congressional districts — the fourth and the seventh — after incumbent Vicki Hartzler and Billy Long declared candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Sen. Roy Blunt. At least five state senators, a former state senator and a state representative have either declared candidacy or are looking at running for one of these two districts.

We expect a serious primary challenge in the first congressional district, now held by Congresswoman Cori Bush. And, depending on how the lines are eventually drawn, there may be significant primary challenges in the second (Wagner), third (Luetkemeyer) and fifth (Cleaver) congressional districts.

Stay tuned! This is going to get really interesting in the coming months.