Skip to main content

Rick Brattin wins Republican primary for Missouri seat redrawn to favor GOP

▶ Watch Video: Primary elections underway in 5 states as Michigan Democrats battle for Senate seat

Trump-endorsed state lawmaker Rick Brattin has won the Republican nomination for Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, CBS News projects, setting up a battle against an 11-term Democrat in a district that was made dramatically more GOP-leaning last year.

Brattin defeated a crowded field of GOP primary candidates Tuesday. Incumbent Rep. Emanuel Cleaver ran for the Democratic nomination unopposed.

A Marine veteran, Brattin was elected to the Missouri state Senate in 2020, after serving in the state House of Representatives. President Trump offered his endorsement Monday, calling Brattin a “MAGA Warrior,” and he was backed by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. 

The seat previously covered a deep-blue area surrounding Kansas City, but it was transformed during last year’s nationwide redistricting scramble, which led state lawmakers to split up the state’s second-largest metro area between three different districts. The 5th District now juts over 150 miles from Kansas City into Central Missouri, and its electorate is just 41% Democratic, down from 62% Democratic under its old borders, according to a CBS News analysis.

Brattin — a native of the Kansas City area — lives just outside the redrawn district, but he represents part of it in the state legislature, The Kansas City Star reported last month.

If Brattin succeeds in flipping the 5th District, which most national analysts now view as safely GOP-leaning, it could aid Republicans’ efforts to hold onto their narrow House majority in what is widely expected to be a challenging midterm election for the party.

It would also oust Cleaver, a former Kansas City mayor who has represented the area in the House since 2005. Missouri Republicans have considered splitting up Kansas City to squeeze out Cleaver for years, as the state has grown increasingly red. 

The state legislature passed new congressional maps last fall, in a rare mid-decade redistricting push shortly after Texas Republicans shifted five of their districts rightward at Mr. Trump’s urging, and California Democrats responded by shifting five districts to the left. Missouri now has one Democratic-leaning district in the St. Louis area and seven GOP-leaning districts.

The gambit has drawn lawsuits from opponents who argue the new districts are not compact and violate the state constitution, but the Missouri Supreme Court has left the map in place.

Congressman Al Green and Alpha Phi Alpha Bring Slavery Remembrance to the U.S. Capitol

By CNN
Click here for updates on this story    August 12, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Saturday, August 15, 2026, the U.S. Capitol will become more than the nation’s legislative workplace. For a few consequential hours, it will also serve as a classroom of memory, accountability and democratic purpose as Congressman Al Green (TX-09)hosts Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. for a Slavery Remembrance Legislative Update and Assembly at the Capitol Visitor’s Center Auditorium.Beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET, the program will advance Green’s continuing effort to establish August 20 as a National Slavery Remembrance Day — ensuring that the brutality of slavery, the resistance of the enslaved and their foundational contributions to America are never pushed to the margins of public memory. This year’s theme, “Harder Yet May Be the Fight,” feels both historical and unmistakably contemporary. Democracy, after all, is strongest when a nation can examine its entire record — not simply the comfortable chapters.And this movement did not begin yesterday.In July 2022, the U.S. House approved Green’s H.Res. 517, the Original Slavery Remembrance Day Resolution, by a 218–207 vote. In the current 119th Congress, Green introduced H.J.Res. 67, supporting the designation of August as Slavery Remembrance Month and expanding the national conversation about slavery, its continuing effects and those who fought to end it.Saturday’s assembly will also spotlight another consequential proposal: Green’s push to secure a Congressional Gold Medal for enslaved Africans and their descendants.His H.R. 4885, introduced August 5, 2025, seeks to posthumously award a collective Congressional Gold Medal to Africans and their descendants enslaved in America through the abolition of slavery in 1865.The historical contrast is striking. In 1956, Congress awarded Congressional Gold Medals to the four known surviving Civil War veterans, with the authorization explicitly covering veterans who served in either the Union or Confederate forces. Green’s argument raises a powerful question: Should the millions whose uncompensated labor helped build American economic power receive comparable national recognition?Standing alongside Green will be Alpha Phi Alpha General President Brother Lucien J. Metellus, Jr. The partnership itself carries historic weight.photo General President Brother Lucien J. Metellus, Jr. met with Brother Congressman Al Green (D-TX) Founded at Cornell University in 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha became the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American men. Its legacy of civil rights, civic participation and leadership includes Alpha men such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.Metellus has warned against efforts to diminish the sacrifices and contributions of African Americans, saying Alpha Phi Alpha refuses to allow slavery’s evils to be forgotten or its ancestors left without proper honor. Green, himself an Alpha brother, puts the mission plainly: “Remembrance requires more than reflection; it requires us to confront our history.”That makes Saturday’s gathering bigger than a ceremony.It is an exercise in democratic citizenship.A mature democracy does not fear its history. It studies it. It names injustice without surrendering hope. Patriotism is not pretending America has always fulfilled its promises; it is demanding that America continually move closer to them.For Houston, the moment carries particular resonance. A Houston congressman is helping place a national spotlight on the enslaved people whose names too often disappeared while the wealth their labor generated remained.History may be written in books, but remembrance is written in public choices.On August 15, Congressman Al Green and Alpha Phi Alpha will make one choice unmistakably clear: America moves forward best when America remembers.EVENT DETAILS WHO: Congressman Al Green and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and General President Brother Lucien J. Metellus, Jr.
Read Next Story

Related Stories

Latest News
Chavismo y oposición cierran primera ronda de diálogos: pactan cambios en la justicia y priorizar atención tras los sismos
1 hour ago

Chavismo y oposición cierran primera ronda de diálogos: pactan cambios en la justicia y priorizar atención tras los sismos

Trump anuncia que Karoline Leavitt dejará el cargo de secretaria de prensa de la Casa Blanca a finales de agosto

Si venden a Ucrania el 10 % de los Patriot de EE.UU., "destruiremos todos los misiles balísticos rusos", dice Zelensky a CNN

Surrogate gives birth to baby at center of multistate legal battle

Colombia limits foreign rescue teams as earthquake survival window narrows