Updated at 11:45 a.m. on Friday with comments from Ray Reed and Trish Gunby:
Democrat Ben Samuels is withdrawing from the 2nd Congressional District contest, pointing to how the St. Louis-area district became much less favorable for his party after redistricting, which moved him out of the district.
Samuels believes that Missouri鈥檚 redistricting saga should prompt sharp questions about how states handle the once-every-10-years process, which can be critical to how the state is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives.
鈥淎ll of these districts across the country have gotten more partisan and more extreme,鈥� Samuels said. 鈥淎nd it's unfortunate that the state legislature has the unilateral authority, not to just draw candidates out of districts, but to make districts better for themselves.鈥�
Samuels is a former aide to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker whose family has deep ties to the St. Louis region and Missouri. He鈥檇 been the clear fundraising leader in the race to take on Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, raising well over $1 million for a district that had been competitive in 2018 and 2020.
But the Missouri General Assembly redrew the 2nd District to include all of Franklin County and part of Warren County 鈥� two voting jurisdictions that are heavily Republican. That makes the district much more GOP leaning than it was in past election cycles.
Missouri Republicans had made no secret before the redistricting process started that they wanted to make the 2nd District more favorable to the GOP. But Samuels noted that different versions of the map drew his residence in Creve Coeur into the 1st Congressional District. (Candidates for Congress do not need to live in the districts they seek to represent.)
鈥淲ith the ground rules changed, and I was drawn out of the district, and that just changes the situation here,鈥� Samuels said.
With Samuels鈥� departure from the contest, there are two Democrats seeking the 2nd District nomination 鈥� state Rep. Trish Gunby and Brentwood native Ray Reed. Wagner has several GOP opponents, including past St. Louis County executive nominee Paul Berry III.
In a statement, Gunby's campaign said that the state lawmaker "won races with higher margins for Trump before, and though the footprint of MO-02 has expanded, our playbook remains the same."
"For ten months, this campaign has been working in the heart of the redrawn district," the statement read. "Now, voters in Franklin County and Warren County can expect to see Trish in the coming months."
Reed said in a that it took courage to run for Congress, adding "I commend him for lifting up the economic issues for folks across MO2 and the plight of our small business community."
Changing the system
Like other states, Missouri鈥檚 legislature is responsible for redrawing its congressional districts. Either a bipartisan commission or appellate judges are in charge of overhauling state House and Senate districts.
Samuels said that this past redistricting cycle produced few districts that are considered competitive, something he added is a major problem for both the state of federal legislative politics and for voters.
鈥淲hat's happening in Illinois or in New York is just as bad as what's happening here or in Texas or in Florida,鈥� Samuels said. 鈥淭he challenge is 鈥� that everyone has an incentive to draw themselves safe seats 鈥� not seats that are representative of the community and not seats that are designed to be fair.鈥�
He said that finding an alternative system to draw districts isn鈥檛 cut and dried. California, for instance, uses a commission for redistricting 鈥� but outlets like ProPublica noted that Democrats actively manipulated those . And Missouri鈥檚 state legislative redistricting commission often deadlock and hand the process over to appellate judges, who may not be attuned to the .
While acknowledging that commissions are not a panacea, Samuels said there are examples of them creating competitive districts. He suggested that perhaps states could enter into pacts to have similar redistricting systems.
鈥淣ew York and California are pretty good examples where commissions didn't work,鈥� Samuels said. 鈥淐olorado and Michigan are examples where the commission's worked quite well. And you end up with congressional districts, some of which are Republican, some of which are Democratic, and a lot are pretty purple which represents two pretty purple states.鈥�
Compactness questioned
Samuels contends that the map that the legislature passed and Gov. Mike Parson signed into law doesn鈥檛 conform with the state鈥檚 constitutional requirements around compactness.
But even though that may be something that could be challenged in court, Samuels said it鈥檚 highly possible that courts may not act this cycle since it鈥檚 so close to an election. Another barrier is that a 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding a map enacted in 2011
鈥淵ou don't need to be any sort of elections expert to look at that map and say that's not compact, and so I do think we have a compelling case,鈥� Samuels said. 鈥淚 think the challenges were that we鈥檙e just too close to an election, right now, for that to change. But we're going to continue fighting that and hope for districts that are fairer, more balanced, more representative.鈥�
For the time being, Samuels said he will refund most of the money that he鈥檚 raised for the contest. Any money that鈥檚 left over will be used to 鈥渟upport candidates locally, who I think push for a lot of the good, common sense bipartisan reforms that we need in this country.鈥�
鈥淭he extremism is really out of control,鈥� Samuels said. 鈥淚 think people's willingness to subvert democracy is out of control. And despite the fact that I've been gerrymandered out of my district, none of that changes. Those are things I'm going to continue fighting for.鈥�
Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum
