Missouri’s 4th Congressional District is the state’s largest by area, covering eastern Kansas City, several Jackson County suburbs, exurban counties, and rural southwest Missouri down to Dade County under a map redrawn in 2025.1 It is one of the most reliably Republican seats in the country, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+23, and is currently represented by Republican Mark Alford, who is seeking a third term in the August 4, 2026 primary.
What the District Covers
The 4th stretches across more than 14,000 square miles at roughly 55 people per square mile, with a population of about 784,000 according to 2024 American Community Survey data. Median household income sits at $68,144, the poverty rate is 12 percent, and about a quarter of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. Veterans make up 9.2 percent of the population, well above the national average — a reflection of the district’s long ties to the military.
Under the map used through the 118th Congress, the district ran from the Kansas City suburbs south through the Ozarks and took in Sedalia, Warrensburg, Lebanon, Jefferson City, Harrisonville, and parts of Lee’s Summit and Kansas City. The 2025 redistricting reshuffled those lines. The redrawn district now includes the eastern part of Kansas City in Jackson County, Jackson County suburbs, various exurban counties, and rural southwest Missouri.
Two military installations continue to anchor the district’s economy. Whiteman Air Force Base near Warrensburg houses the 509th Bomb Wing, the only unit operating the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Fort Leonard Wood, in the south-central Ozarks, trains close to 80,000 military and civilian personnel each year across all service branches. Those bases are the reason a seat on the House Armed Services Committee has been a near-requirement for whoever represents the district.
Who Represents the District
Mark Alford, a Republican and former Kansas City television news anchor, has held the seat since January 2023. He won the open race in 2022 with 71.3 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Jack Truman by nearly 115,000 votes. He sits on the House Agriculture Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, assignments that line up with the district’s farming economy and its military bases.
Through mid-2026, Alford has sponsored 51 bills, seven of which have become law, and cast more than 1,800 roll-call votes. His legislative work concentrates on armed forces and national security, economics and public finance, agriculture and food, and immigration. Recent bills he introduced include the VA Emergency Transportation Act, the Enhanced Alerts for Missing Loved Ones with Disabilities Act, and the FAIR Labels Act, all in 2026.
On his campaign site, Alford lists positions typical of a conservative from a rural district: opposition to the estate tax and to EPA regulation of agriculture, support for building a border wall and expanding border enforcement, support for lower taxes and reduced federal spending, support for congressional term limits, opposition to federal involvement in local education, and an unqualified defense of gun rights. He describes himself as “100% Pro-Life.”
For the 2025–2026 cycle through March 31, 2026, Alford’s campaign committee reported raising $1,105,827 and spending $581,582, with $742,113 cash on hand and no debt.
The 2025 Map and the Fight Over It
In September 2025, Governor Mike Kehoe signed a new congressional map into law after a special legislative session called at the urging of President Donald Trump. The map’s aim was to increase Missouri’s Republican House delegation from six seats to seven by splitting Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-based 5th District into three pieces and distributing its voters across neighboring districts, including the 4th.
The Democratic National Committee called the plan a “right-wing power grab.” Lawsuits followed almost immediately. The Missouri NAACP challenged the constitutionality of the special session and the use of mid-decade redistricting. The ACLU of Missouri alleged violations of compactness and equal-population requirements. The National Redistricting Foundation sued on behalf of 16 Jackson County residents, and Cole County residents brought a separate suit questioning the basic authority to redraw maps outside the normal post-census cycle.
In March 2026, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Kehoe had authority to call the special session and that lawmakers acted within their constitutional power in passing the map. On May 12, 2026, the court issued two unanimous decisions. Chief Justice W. Brent Powell wrote the first, upholding the map’s constitutionality: “drawing district maps is a political process and the courts should not second-guess those decisions.” The second, Maggard v. State of Missouri, was authored by Judge Ginger Gooch and held that the filing of a referendum petition did not automatically suspend the new map, because the Secretary of State had not yet certified the petitions as sufficient.
The Referendum Petition
A political action committee called People Not Politicians is trying to put the redistricting law before voters. The group turned in roughly 300,000 signatures on December 9, 2025, before the law’s effective date. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said he would wait for local election authorities to complete signature verification by the July 27, 2026 deadline and start his own certification process on July 28, aiming to finish by the August 4 primary.
In May 2026, People Not Politicians filed suit in Cole County asking Judge Daniel Green to compel an earlier decision. The group’s executive director, Richard von Glahn, and its attorney, Chuck Hatfield, warned that holding a primary under maps that might later be voided could force a do-over.
Local election officials have split on how to handle the uncertainty. Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon refused to update voter rolls to the new districts, saying she had “no actionable legal information” about which map was in effect. Hoskins criticized her publicly and threatened legal action. St. Charles County Elections Director Kurt Bahr moved ahead with the new boundaries, and his attorney warned that reverting to the old map would cause “mass chaos and confusion.” As of mid-2026, the new map is in effect for the August 4 primary. If the petitions are certified and voters reject the map in November, the state could revert to the prior lines for the 2028 cycle.
The 2026 Election
The Cook Political Report rates the seat Solid Republican. Missouri uses an open primary, so voters may pick any party’s ballot regardless of their own registration. The filing period ran from February 24 to March 31, 2026. The primary is August 4, 2026, and the general election is November 3.
Republican Primary
Two challengers filed against Alford: Heather Shelton, a realtor from Lee’s Summit, and Scott Vincent Vera. Neither has drawn significant public attention or fundraising, and Alford heads into the primary as a heavy favorite given his incumbency and cash advantage.
Democratic Primary
Seven Democrats are competing for the nomination. They are Jordan Herrera, a 16-year Air Force veteran and former Assistant Attorney General; Jeanette Cass, a farmer who was the 2024 Democratic nominee and won 26 percent of the vote; Hartzell Gray, an activist; Randy Miller, a radio show host; Ashleigh Rogers, an interior designer; Wayne Russell, a nurse and teacher; and G. Rick.
Herrera has run the most visible Democratic campaign, with endorsements from the Missouri AFL-CIO and the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO. He has focused on restoring Medicare funding for rural hospitals, creating a public insurance option, and what he calls “rural renewal.” He originally planned to run in the 5th District against Cleaver but shifted to the 4th after the September 2025 redistricting. He says he was fired from the Attorney General’s office in what he calls “political retribution for speaking up against ICE,” and his website calls for the impeachment of President Trump.
Thomas Holbrook is running as the Libertarian candidate.
How the District Got This Way
For decades the 4th belonged to Ike Skelton, a conservative Democrat who held the seat from 1977 to 2011 and rose to chair the House Armed Services Committee. Skelton was known as a “Truman Democrat” — hawkish on defense and supportive of gun rights while more liberal on economic policy. His long tenure rested heavily on his advocacy for Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman.
The 2010 Tea Party wave ended Skelton’s 17-term run. Vicky Hartzler, a former state representative and Cass County farmer, unseated him by attacking his votes for the stimulus and climate legislation, with endorsements from Sarah Palin, the Missouri Farm Bureau, and local Tea Party groups. Time magazine noted at the time that the district was “historically conservative,” having given John McCain more than 60 percent of the vote in 2008. Hartzler served from 2011 to 2023 and sat on the Armed Services Committee as Republican leadership had promised her during the campaign. She left the House in 2022 for an unsuccessful U.S. Senate run, and Alford won the open seat that November.