By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers are meeting in a special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to bolster Republicans’ chances of retaining control of Congress in next year’s elections.

The special session called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe is scheduled to begin at noon Wednesday and will run at least a week.

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Missouri is the third state to pursue the unusual task of mid-decade redistricting for partisan advantage. Republican-led Texas, prodded by Trump, was the first to take up redistricting with a new map aimed at helping Republicans pick up five more congressional seats.

But before Texas even completed its work, Democratic-led California already had fought back with its own redistricting plan designed to give Democrats a chance at winning five more seats. California’s plan still needs voter approval at a Nov. 4 election.

Other states could follow with their own redistricting efforts.

Nationally, Democrats need to gain three seats next year to take control of the House. Historically, the party of the president usually loses seats in the midterm congressional elections.

What is redistricting?

At the start of each decade, the Census Bureau collects population data that is used to allot the 435 U.S. House seats proportionally among states. States that grow relative to others may gain a House seat at the expense of states where populations stagnated or declined. Though some states may have their own restrictions, there is nothing nationally that prohibits states from redrawing districts in the middle of a decade.

In many states, congressional redistricting is done by state lawmakers, subject to approval by the governor. Some states have special commissions responsible for redistricting.

What is gerrymandering?

Partisan gerrymandering occurs when a political party in charge of the redistricting process draws voting district boundaries to its advantage.

One common method is for a majority party to draw a map that packs voters who support the opposing party into only a few districts, thus allowing the majority party to win a greater number of surrounding districts. Another common method is for the majority party to dilute the power of an opposing party’s voters by spreading them thinly among multiple districts.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts have no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. But it said state courts still can decide such cases under their own laws.

How could Missouri’s districts change?

Missouri currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map proposed by Kehoe would give Republicans a shot at winning seven seats in the 2026 elections.

It targets a Kansas City district, currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by stretching it eastward into Republican-leaning rural areas. Meanwhile, other parts of Cleaver’s district would be split off and folded into heavily Republican districts currently represented by GOP Reps. Mark Alford and Sam Graves. Districts also would be realigned in the St. Louis area but with comparatively minor changes to the district held by Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell.

Republican lawmakers had considered a potential 7-1 map when originally drawing districts after the 2020 census. But the GOP majority opted against it because of concerns it could face legal challenges and create more competitive districts that could backfire in a poor election year by allowing Democrats to win up to three seats.

Could other states join the redistricting battle?

Mid-decade redistricting must occur in Ohio, according to its constitution, because Republicans there adopted congressional maps without sufficient bipartisan support. That could create an opening for Republicans to try to expand their 10-5 seat majority over Democrats.

A court in Utah has ordered the Republican-controlled Legislature to draw new congressional districts after ruling that lawmakers circumvented an independent redistricting commission established by voters to ensure districts don’t deliberately favor one party. A new map could help Democrats, because Republicans currently hold all four of the state’s U.S. House seats.

Other Republican-led states, such as Indiana and Florida, are considering redistricting at Trump’s urging. Officials in Democratic-led states, such as Illinois, Maryland and New York, also have talked of trying to counter the Republican push with their own revised maps.

What else is at stake in Missouri?

A special session agenda set by Kehoe also includes proposed changes to Missouri’s ballot measure process.

One key change would make it harder for ballot initiatives to succeed. If approved by voters, Missouri’s constitution would be amended so that all future ballot measures would need not only a majority of the statewide vote but also a majority of the votes in each congressional district in order to pass.

If such a standard had been in place last year, an abortion-rights amendment to the state constitution would have failed. That measure narrowly passed statewide on the strength of “yes” votes in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas but failed in rural congressional districts.

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 3, the 246th day of 2025. There are 119 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 3, 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War and recognized U.S. sovereignty.

Also on this date:

In 1861, during the Civil War, Confederate forces invaded the border state of Kentucky, which had declared its neutrality in the conflict.

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In 1894, the United States celebrated the first federal Labor Day holiday.

In 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive an automobile more than 300 mph (480 kph), speeding across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

In 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; in a radio address, Britain’s King George VI said, “With God’s help, we shall prevail.”

In 1943, Allied forces invaded Italy during World War II, the same day Italian officials signed a secret armistice with the Allies.

In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the red planet’s surface.

In 1999, a French judge closed a two-year inquiry into the car crash that killed Princess Diana, dismissing all charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist, and concluding the crash was caused by an inebriated driver.

In 2019, Walmart said it would stop selling ammunition for handguns and short-barrel rifles, and the store chain requested that customers not openly carry firearms in its stores; the announcement followed a shooting at a Walmart store in Texas that left 22 people dead.

Today’s Birthdays:

Singer-musician Al Jardine (The Beach Boys) is 82.
Actor Valerie Perrine is 82.
Filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet is 72.
Rock guitarist Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols) is 70.
Actor Steve Schirripa (TV: “The Sopranos”) is 67.
Author Malcolm Gladwell is 62.
Actor Charlie Sheen is 60.
Filmmaker Noah Baumbach is 56.
Actor Garrett Hedlund is 41.
Olympic gold medal snowboarder Shaun White is 39.
Model-actor Kaia Gerber is 24.
Actor Jack Dylan Grazer is 22.

The sparse crowd at Target Field on Tuesday night was not shy about making its feelings known. As things went from bad to worse for the hometown team and the Twins continued to fall into a progressively deeper hole against the team with the American League’s worst record, the boobirds came out.

An announced crowd of 11,721 fans — along with more than 300 canine friends — watched the Twins get routed by the Chicago White Sox, falling 12-3 in the second game of the series at Target Field as they gave up 11 unanswered runs.

“I’m going to stay optimistic most of the time, but that wasn’t good,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

A pair of errors on throws to second base proved costly for the Twins, who gave up two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth before the White Sox (51-88) broke the game open with four runs in the seventh and then added three more in the eighth.

The Twins (62-76) actually had two separate early leads, striking first after Trevor Larnach knocked in Byron Buxton, who tripled to lead off the bottom of the first. After Simeon Woods Richardson served up a game-tying home run in the top of the second, Mickey Gasper’s stolen base put him in scoring position and Ryan Fitzgerald brought him home.

But things unraveled a few innings later.

With a runner on first in the fifth inning, White Sox right fielder Will Robertson hit a ball back at Woods Richardson, his bat splintering in the process. The barrel flew back at the pitcher, who to ducked and tried to dodge it but his throw to second to get the lead runner sailed over Brooks Lee’s head and into the outfield. The bat did actually nick Woods Richardson during the play, striking him in the neck.

“I was actually trying to focus on both (the bat and the ball) at the same time, but still got to execute a throw,” Woods Richardson said. “I know the internal clock speeds up on anybody and everybody at that point, but you’ve still got to make a better throw.”

Instead of a double play, the error left runners on the corners for Bryan Ramos, the very next batter, who hit a double to bring home both runs and tie the game up at three apiece.

An inning later, after Thomas Hatch issued a leadoff walk, he induced a groundball to third but Austin Martin couldn’t hang onto Fitzgerald’s throw with the ball ticking off his glove, setting the stage for another two-run inning that put the Twins into a deficit from which they would not be able to overcome.

“We make those plays, which are plays that we should make, you never know how the game ends up,” Baldelli said. “We could end up in a really good spot at that point. The fundamentals are going to be the things that we continue to talk about and preach.”

Four more runs scored in the seventh, starting with back-to-back home runs from Kyle Teel and Lenyn Sosa. Four more hits — and two more runs followed — before Hatch got out of the inning and an inning later, Noah Davis served up an Andrew Benintendi three-run home run, eliciting displeasure from the crowd.

“I don’t think anyone felt good leaving the field today, walking off the field,” Baldelli said. “Definitely frustrating, but we have to get over it.”

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and leaders of other metro-area cities are calling for the Minnesota Legislature to allow them to create local gun control laws if state lawmakers can’t reach an agreement on new policies.

Gov. Tim Walz has said he plans to call a special session to address gun policy after the shooting last week at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis that killed two young children and injured 18 others.

Walz and Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers want new restrictions on firearms, but they’ll have to get Republican support to pass bills like a ban on certain semiautomatic rifles and limiting the capacity of magazines. And, that appears unlikely.

Gov. Tim Walz. (Jose. F. Moreno / The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)

Recognizing that political reality, Carter, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and leaders of seven other cities gathered Tuesday at the Minnesota Capitol to ask state leaders to repeal a 1985 state law preventing local governments from enacting their own gun control.

“We have an emergency and we are simply asking our legislature to do what every 8-year-old in that school knew to do last week: Take action,” said Carter, noting along with other mayors that he would prefer a federal or state ban to local action.

“If you’re not able to do it or willing to do it there, give us the ability to keep our constituents safe,” Frey said. “That is our call. That is our ask.”

Chances at Legislature?

Leaders from Bloomington, Stillwater, Vadnais Heights, Minnetonka, Hopkins and Richfield joined Carter and Frey on Tuesday in pushing for the repeal of the decades-old preemption law.

It’s unclear if they’ll have any success, as House and Senate Republicans have shown few signs of interest in changing gun laws.

The House is currently split 67-66 with Republicans at a one-seat advantage.

That likely will return to a 67-67 tie after a special election for former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman’s seat on Sept. 16.

No matter the outcome of that election, House DFLers will still need GOP votes to pass any bills.

On the Senate side, DFLers have 33 seats to Republicans’ 32 seats. Two special elections this November could change the balance of power or preserve the DFL’s one-seat majority. But right now, they still need 34 votes to pass any bills.

If all 33 DFL senators voted for an assault weapons ban or any other gun control legislation, they’d need one Republican to join them.

Surrounded by fellow metro mayors Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry speaks to the media during a press conference at the State Capitol Building in St. Paul on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Complicating matters

Further complicating matters for the Senate DFL is that at least one northern rural senator could be a holdout on gun bills. Rural district holdouts limited gun control legislation when the DFL had full control of state government in 2023 and 2024.

Sen. Grant Hauschild, who represents northeast Minnesota’s Arrowhead region, has voted for measures like extreme risk protection orders and universal background checks.

But he opposed a requirement to lock up guns and another bill that would require the reporting of stolen or lost guns in a timely manner.

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said last week’s news of Walz considering a special session had initially come as a surprise.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth (Courtesy photo)

In a Monday statement, the speaker said she had a conversation with Walz about his goals and noted that any proposals that come through the Legislature will need bipartisan support.

“If Governor Walz and Democrats are focused on partisan accusations and demands, this special session will not be productive for the people of Minnesota,” Demuth said.

Some Republicans have already signaled opposition to lifting the state preemption.

House Safety Committee Lead Paul Novotny, R-Elk River, said the law prevents a “confusing local patchwork of local rules” that would turn “law-abiding citizens into criminals simply for crossing a city or county line.”

“The Second Amendment does not change depending on your zip code, and every law-abiding Minnesotan deserves the same right to protect themselves and their family no matter what city or county they are currently in,” he said in a statement. “Constitutional freedoms shall not be infringed by a county or city government, and I trust the courts would agree.”

Local laws?

City leaders didn’t get into specifics on how local bans might take shape, though they shared a general idea of what they wanted.

Mayors called for an overall ban on the sale and possession of “assault style weapons,” which would include the AR-15 — a semiautomatic rifles with features like pistol grips and detachable magazines. Frey said magazine capacity would be limited to 10 bullets.

Minneapolis and St. Paul don’t have any stores that sell guns, so local bans in those cities would mainly affect people who already own semiautomatic rifles and larger magazines.

Asked if there would be anything that could stop someone from buying a gun in one municipality and bringing it to another, Minnetonka Mayor Brad Wiersum, whose city has a gun retailer, said doing nothing at all to regulate weapons would be a bigger cause for concern.

“If you take away opportunities to get guns, there will be fewer guns used,” he said. “Does it solve the problem? It does not. But does it reduce the problem? Does it mitigate the problem? Yes, it does.”

Recent setbacks for gun control advocates

A renewed push for gun restrictions comes amid recent setbacks for gun control advocates in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a prominent state gun rights group, has successfully challenged multiple Minnesota gun laws.

In August, a Ramsey County Judge struck down a state law banning binary triggers — a modification that allows a semiautomatic weapon to fire both when the trigger is pulled and released, greatly increasing its rate of fire.

Judge Leonardo Castro said it couldn’t stand because DFL lawmakers inserted the ban into a 1,400-page bill in the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, violating the Minnesota Constitution’s Single Subject and Title Clause.

In another August ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court said a decades-old law banning certain guns without serial numbers didn’t apply to homemade “ghost guns” as long as federal law doesn’t require a serial number.

And, earlier this year, Minnesota’s minimum age to obtain a permit to carry a firearm dropped from 21 to 18 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the state’s appeal in a case challenging the minimum age.

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