Administration

Vance swings through newly-redrawn Missouri district in GOP’s favor

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by Julia Manchester - 05/18/26 3:47 PM ET

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by Julia Manchester - 05/18/26 3:47 PM ET

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Vice President Vance hit the campaign trail in a newly drawn, GOP-friendly congressional district on Monday which has a high chance to hand Republicans an additional House seat in November.

The vice president initially referred to the seat as “open” during remarks at a manufacturing company but Missouri’s 5th district has been represented by incumbent Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005.

Cleaver is facing six GOP challengers. At one point during his speech, Vance asked the crowd to tell him which Republican was running in the race, to which someone from the crowd inaudibly responded.

“We’re rooting for any good Republican,” Vance said.

When he asked which Democrat was running, someone in the crowd shouted Cleaver.

“I don’t know who that is,” Vance responded.

Missouri is one of several red states that, at the direction of President Trump, redrew their congressional maps to favor Republicans in the upcoming midterms. Last week the state’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected challenges to the new GOP-map that would hand the party a crucial additional congressional seat in a chamber with razor-thin margins.

Vance made the redistricting effort part of his remarks.

“We had that great Supreme Court case that said a crazy thing, like maybe we shouldn’t discriminate against people based on race, right, very common sense,” Vance said.

“Maybe we should build our congressional districts to represent people rather than representing racial groups,” he continued.

Vance spent considerable time criticizing congressional Democrats by illustrating their response to Trump during his State of the Union address earlier this year.

He pointed to Democratic lawmakers not standing to applaud guests brought by the White House and initiatives Trump laid out during his remarks.

“When we had some very simple things, some things that you would expect every American, whether they’re a Democrat or Republican, to stand and cheer for, Democrats sat on their hands,” Vance said, referring specifically to a young guest who had been wounded by an illegal immigrant.

“You got to ask yourself, what’s wrong with a party that will not stand up and cheer for a 6-year-old little girl who’s been wounded by an illegal alien criminal,” he said.

Prior to delivering remarks at the manufacturing facility, the vice president stopped at a Republican National Committee fundraiser in Kansas City.

While Trump has hit the campaign trail a number of times this year, he has not attended many in-person events as it relates to the midterms as much as Vance has.

Just before Vance delivered his remarks, Trump made a cascade of endorsements in Pennsylvania congressional House races – opting to do so on his Truth Social platform.

Vance last week traveled to Maine and earlier this month he stopped in his home state of Ohio to vote in the state’s Republican primary. He then went to Oklahoma for a fundraiser and to Iowa to campaign for incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) in the state’s 3rd congressional district.

While the redistricting effort could mean more Republican wins in November, the GOP faces an uphill climb when it comes to public perception.

A New York Times Siena College poll released Monday showed Trump’s approval rating at a new low of 37 percent. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they disapproved of the job Trump was doing, but that comes against the backdrop of Trump-backed candidates sailing to victories in recent Republican primaries.

Vance, for his part, has been the subject of intense 2028 presidential contender chatter alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently got the presidential treatment during a raucous White House press briefing.

Trump has repeatedly referred to a Vance-Rubio presidential ticket as a “dream team” ahead of 2028 but neither has made clear they wish to be, or remain, in a No. 2 position.

Vance brushed off 2028 speculation as recently as last week.

“There are few topics that I want to talk about less than what office I’m going to run for years down the road when I’m having a good time and trying to do good work in the job that the American people already elected me to do,” Vance said.

In his pitch to the crowd at the Missouri manufacturing plant, Vance’s message centered on voting out Democratic incumbents.

“If you want to rebuild the American dream for the next generation, vote against the crazy leadership in Washington, D.C.,” he told the audience.

Vance received some of his loudest applause when talking about his new role leading the White House’s anti-fraud task force.

“Fighting fraud in Washington DC is a little bit like fishing in a barrel with a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. It is the easiest thi