Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) attended the Governor’s Ham Breakfast (a fundraiser) on the fairgrounds of the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia on Thursday morning. He took a few moments to speak with media:

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Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D): ….So, uh, make no mistake, I am here now because, uh, the district was, uh, mean-spiritedly redrawn, uh, and I, I’m going to do, uh, you know, what I would do normally and it’s go out and be with the people where I, that I’m representing. I’ve done it for all my career whether it’s, you know, pastoring the same church for thirty-seven years, or being city council, mayor [of Kansas City], and a member of Congress. So, you know, I’m, uh, kind of obsessed with human beings. All kinds.

Question: [laughter] Just a reaction from yesterday’s [Cole County Circuit Court] ruling.

Rep. Cleaver: Well, obviously I’m disappointed in the, in the ruling. I think they’re wrong. And the law is, I think, clear. I’m not a lawyer. But almost every lawyer that I’ve spoken with has said, uh, that it’s clear. That, uh, when the signatures are certified it stops everything, uh, until the people of Missouri who took their time to, uh, to do the signature and, uh, petition a referendum, uh, a chance to, to have their say and a vote.

So, had they worked the way they should, should work and the way they have worked in the past, uh, everything would have stopped yesterday, uh, and, uh, we would be now getting ready for, uh, a election in November with the old, uh, lines. And then of course, uh, after their, we reached the end of that term, uh, that would be an, an election [inaudible] take place. But all that was pushed aside. And, we, you know, I don’t, I can control only that which I control. And I can control, you know, being out, being available, uh, meeting with and, and, uh, listening to people across the state. And I have done that….

Question: ….How much faith do you have that the [Missouri] Supreme Court will rule in favor of the referendum?

Rep. Cleaver: Uh, I have not, uh, uh, organized a party to celebrate, uh, the Supreme Court decision. Uh, I, I can only hope that, uh, they will, uh, you know, do their job as they understand it. That’s all I can do.

Question: Secretary Hoskins was saying that this isn’t a ‘smear Representative Cleaver campaign’ to get you out of office. Says he’s friends with Rick Brattin [the Republican candidate in the 5th Congressional District] but it has nothing to do with it.

Rep. Cleaver:: What’s that name?

Question: Uh, Secretary [of State] Hoskins. Denny Hoskins. Denny Hoskins. Any reaction to these words? Has he spoken to you as well?

Rep. Cleaver:: No.

Question: No. And your reaction to what he said that this wasn’t out to get you specifically?

Rep. Cleaver:: You know, if we go squirrel hunting the squirrel that’s targeted, they’re gonna feel like it was taken personally.

You know, I, I don’t know how else to take it. I think, uh, the only other way, you know, that you’re doing something to the, to the people. Based on the polling data I’ve seen on, uh, mid-decade redistricting the people of Missouri don’t like it. Uh, black, white, rural, urban, old, young. I was at a, a senior citizen’s facility yesterday and I couldn’t hardly even finish my speech because people wanted to express their anger and hostility [to redistricting]. And, uh many of them, uh, were not in the party of which I, uh, sit now.

But, you know, I, I don’t know what the Supreme Court is gonna do. I don’t know a single member of the Supreme Court. I couldn’t call a single name. I, I, I, you know, I’m not gonna spend a lot of time sitting around saying, ‘woe is me.’ I’m gonna go out here, run a clean campaign as a group of ministers asked me to do yesterday. They said, look, we, we don’t care about all that [inaudible] stuff. We want you to run a straight campaign, the way you’ve always done and, uh, don’t get in the gutter. But I’m not. I’m gonna run a campaign based on what I’ve been able to do in Congress….

Rep. Cleaver:: ….I am convinced, and a lot of people don’t like this, that, that the overwhelming majority of people in this country are good and decent people. There’s a group, make no mistake, uh, you know, of haters and, and they like chaos so forth. But the majority of the people are, are just, just good. And, and they want to see things done in, in the right way….

Question: What were your takeaways on the historic defeats of Amendments 4 [restricting initiatives] and 5 [implementing regressive taxation on working people] here in Missouri. Do you think that large margin might carry over to some momentum, uh, for November for Missouri Democrats?

Rep. Cleaver:: Yes, I, I. I’m. Look, people don’t like to be ignored. And if people go out and get, uh, signatures knocking on doors, they, they want the process to work. Uh, and it means that they disagreed with something. Uh, Rachel Maddow [MSNOW] did something, and I missed most of it, uh, a week or so ago, about all of the times that the Missouri General Assembly passed things that the people didn’t like in recent times, you know, whether it was minimum wage or whether it was a woman’s right to choose, and the people went out and collected the signatures to put it on the ballot and won. Uh, you know, and, and she was expressing some shock that Missouri would, would do that. And, and I’ve said in interviews I’m, I’m not. People want to believe, uh, that their voice means something.

And, uh, I think the law, uh, was clear. And that is that once the signatures are certified everything is supposed to stop and revert back to the, uh, previous lines. And, uh, that’s, every time a court gets ready to go over this that’s what I expect them to do. They may not do it. But, uh, that’s my expectation….

Previously:

Governor’s Ham Breakfast – Missouri State Fair – Sedalia – August 20, 2026 (August 21, 2026)