(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Missouri GOP Rep. Bob Onder Wants to Gerrymander His State [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-08-31

Missouri Representative Bob Onder– He’s All in Favor of Joining Texas in Redrawing a New Set of GOP Gerrymandered Maps August 31, 2025

Again, most GOP politicians at both the state and national levels are loyal members of the Trumpian cult. When Demagogue/Dictator wannabe Donald requests them to politically jump for him, they respond, “How High?” We have already seen how Texas Trump GOP foot soldier Gov. Greg Abbott ,afterTrump told him to, had his GOP state legislature do a mid-term redistricting that will contort state congressional districts to hopefully give the GOP five extra congressional seats. After all, the GOP looks like it will lose the House in Campaign 2026 with the current state maps, an unacceptable result for Demagogue Donald. Donald’s popularity is spiraling downward and midterm elections often go against the party holding the White House, in this case, the Republicans. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522302/redistricting-trump-missouri-midterm-elections

Not to be outdone by Texas, Missouri GOPers are ready to redraw their state’s congressional lines to keep a GOP majority in the U.S. House. GOPers currently hold a 219-212 House majority. Two-hundred eighteen (218) votes are required for a majority. Without this 218 majority after the 2026 midterms, Donald will be unable to continue his agenda of more deportations and tax breaks. Democrats would also then be able to conduct investigations of his administration. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522302/redistricting-trump-missouri-midterm-elections

At Donald’s “request,” MO Republicans, who hold a trifecta, their governor and two state chambers, are poised to draw a new voting map. MO’s GOP Governor Mike Kehoe has announced a special legislative session that would start on September 3, 2025, to draw that new GOP-skewed voting map. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522302/redistricting-trump-missouri-midterm-elections

This is a move that has the support of most of the state’s U.S. House delegation, including freshman GOP Rep. Bob Onder. In Onder’s words, “We are a Republican state. Republicans have super majorities in the Missouri House and the Missouri Senate. Republicans hold all of our statewide elected offices, including, of course, governor. I believe that we should pass a congressional map that reflects the values of the state of Missouri.” https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522302/redistricting-trump-missouri-midterm-elections

MO currently has six Republicans and two Democrats in the U.S. House. New maps could redistrict voters in the Kansas City area to help GOPers win a seat there that would edge out current Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522302/redistricting-trump-missouri-midterm-elections

Redistricting is required by the Constitution to determine the number of House members in each state every 10 years after the national Census is done. However, the U.S. Supreme Ct. has recently allowed redistricting in election cycles that are less than every 10 years.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522302/redistricting-trump-missouri-midterm-elections

Just who is this Bob Onder?

First-term St. Louis, Missouri native GOP Representative Robert Frank Onder Jr. (63) received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in economics. He also obtained a medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and specializes in allergy and asthma care. He later graduated from St. Louis University School of Law and is a licensed pilot as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder

From 2007-2008, Onder served a single term in the Missouri House of Representatives after winning election in 2007. In 2008, Onder left the MO House to run for MO’s U.S. House in the 9th Congressional District, now the 3rd, and was endorsed by the economic hard line Club for Growth for his free-market and fiscally conservative record. However, he lost the GOP primary to Blaine Luetkemeyer, who won this congressional race. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder

In 2014, Onder ran for the MO Senate in the 2nd district’s GOP primary. No Democrats ran against him in the general election, so his primary win was tantamount to election. In 2018, Onder ran for re-election and won a second term against a Democratic opponent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder In 2022, Onder announced he was running for St. Charles County Executive, but later withdrew from this race. In 2024, Onder ran but then withdrew from the race for MO’s Lieutenant Governor. In 2024, when Rep. Luetkemeyer declined to run again for the U.S. MO 3rd Congressional District for an eighth term, Onder announced his candidacy for that district. Onder won a 7-person GOP primary and in the 2024 general election, clobbered his Democratic rival by a “ y uu ge” 26.1% margin, 61.3%- 35.2%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder

In his sole term in the MO House, Onder sponsored and authored HB 1549, a bill that passed both the MO House and Senate with strong support and was signed by then GOP Gov. Matt Blunt. This bill, an immigration one, forbids the creation of sanctuary cities in MO. HB 1549 additionally allows for cancellation of state contracts for contractors who hire people illegally present in the U.S. and requires public agencies to verify the legal status of immigrants before providing social service benefits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder

Onder was elected during his first year to the leadership as Assistant Majority Floor Leader. He served in the MO Senate from 2015-2023. He was a Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder Onder was a founding member of the MO Senate’s Conservative Caucus that pushed pro-business regulatory reform, anti-consumer tort reform, health care “reform” for companies, anti-abortion legislation, and gun rights. He introduced a proposed amendment to the MO Constitution that would protect wedding industry businesses that refuse to serve LGBTQ couples. This bill made it out of the MO Senate, but died in the House Committee. In 2019, Onder pushed for a bill that bans abortion at 8 weeks of pregnancy. This bill also banned abortions when there was a diagnosis of Down syndrome.This bill passed both MO houses and then GOP Gov. Mike Parson signed it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder Onder also was successful in getting GOP Gov. Eric Greitens to sign an anti-labor right-to-work law. However, this law was repealed by a ballot initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Onder

In the U.S. House, Rep. Onder voted for and applauded the passage of Trump’s awful pro-top 1% tax cut “Big Beautiful Bill” that slashes Medicaid. (Onder Press Release). We should, therefore, not at all be surprised that Onder wants to redraw congressional lines to keep and enhance GOP majorities by any means possible to enact more reactionary measures for the super-rich.

The 3rd U.S. Congressional District which Onder now represents covers east-central MO stretching from Columbia and Jefferson City to the western St. Louis exurbs in St. Charles and Jefferson Counties. The 3rd also extends like a claw to include both the north and south of St. Louis County and city. Its main population is located in the western part of St. Charles County, which is the third most populous county in MO. In the city of Wentzville, GM has about 4,000 workers. Despite 2022 redistricting in the 3rd, this district remains solidly GOP with a Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) of R+13. In 2020, Trump won 62% of the vote here, a mere 5% drop from his 67% score. https://thealmanacofamericanpolitics.com ,2024, National Journal, 2023, p. 1103

Just like prior GOP 3rd CD Rep. Luetkemeyer, current Republican Rep. Onder can keep getting comfortably re-elected as long as he wants. IMHO, MO’s most famous son, the late Harry Truman, would be horrified about the hard right views of this district as well as the now “Red-leaning” views and voting behavior of his state. If he was alive today, he would, no doubt, be shocked that his “Show Me State” has been conned by the likes of Demagogue/Dictator Wannabe Donald. “Plain speaking” Harry would, rightly, have had choice and nasty words to say about Donald. Democrats must make Trump disciple Onder an irrelevant back bencher by voting in droves to take back the House in Campaign 2026 to help protect our democracy.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/31/2341195/-Missouri-GOP-Rep-Bob-Onder-Wants-to-Gerrymander-His-State?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.