Missouri U.S. Rep. Sam Graves pulls plug on reelection bid

A powerful Missouri Republican congressman is pulling the plug on his reelection bid.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, said in a statement that he will bow out of the GOP primary for Missouri’s 6th Congressional District, which encompasses most of northern Missouri. He’s currently the head of the House Transportation Committee.

“I’ve wrestled with it a little bit, and I think it’s time for some new leadership,” Graves said in an interview Friday. “I have one more good career left in me, and it’s time to pivot to that. I like to tell folks my father is 92 years old and he works every day of his life. And the reason he’s 92 is because he works every day of his life. And so I intend to continue to work and find something different to do.”

While Graves, 62, filed for reelection, his departure had been rumored for weeks. With polls showing that Democrats could win the House next year, Graves might have less power for the foreseeable future.

“You’ve been doing the same job for 26 years, maybe you just decided it’s time to leave,” said Jessica Gracey, a political science professor at Northwest Missouri State University. “Or maybe you don’t want to potentially be in the minority in the House when you’ve been in the majority for so long.”

Graves said that the possibility Republicans may lose the majority had nothing to do with his decision – adding he thinks the GOP can hang onto control of Congress. He did note, though, that he already received a waiver to chair the Transportation Committee – something he’d be unlikely to get again.

“They gave me a waiver from the term limits that we have for committee chairmanship and it isn’t going to happen again,” Graves said. “So I thought it was time to start that next chapter and do something different.”

Legacy includes infrastructure

Graves’ decision marks the end of an era in Missouri politics.

Graves first was elected to the Missouri House in 1992 before winning a state Senate seat in 1994. He won a hotly contested race for the 6th District in 2000, flipping the district that Democrat Pat Danner previously represented. With the exception of his victory against former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes in 2008, Graves never faced a particularly serious challenge for reelection.

Graves’ long tenure in politics could be considered surprising since he went to the University of Missouri to study agronomy.

“The funny thing about it is, I backed into politics. I had no real interest in politics,” Graves said. “And here I am still doing it 34 years later.”

Graves cited the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration as one of his biggest accomplishments, as well as legislation managing inland waterways and ports throughout the country. He’s hoping to finish massive highways legislation by the fall as his next legacy bill.

U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, R-Cass County, told St. Louis Public Radio that while Graves wasn’t the most high-profile member of Congress, his hard work helped build a new airport in Platte County and bring a streetcar system to Kansas City.

“Sam has invested his time wisely, not being self-serving about his time here, not trying to get on television, not trying to be what I sometimes call wildcatters, who are just intent on going in a different direction than our conference,” Alford said. “But he did things the right way, and continues to do those to have a positive impact in leadership.”

With the help of his former congressional aide Jeff Roe, Graves cultivated one of the most effective GOP political organizations in the state. Roe, who started off as Graves’ driver, is now among the most prominent political consultants in America, with his company Axiom Strategies helping GOP candidates in Missouri and across the country.

“When I first got elected to Congress, we decided to get very active in state rep and state Senate seats,” Graves said. “We started running our own campaign school, we started doing our own professional phone bank and recruiting very, very good candidates. There was a time when all of the state Senate seats in the 6th District were Democrat seats. And now we’ve completely flipped that over.”

But even with a reputation as a sharp Republican political operator, Graves developed a close working relationship with Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement that Graves “has helped deliver some of our community’s most important projects over the past generation.”

“I wish him well as he closes his time in the United States Congress,” Lucas said.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public Radio

A political scramble

Graves’ seat stretches from his home in Atchison County all the way to northeast Missouri. It’s solidly Republican under a congressional map passed in 2025 and one approved in 2022.

But the new congressional plan aimed at ousting Cleaver put much more of Kansas City into the 6th District and made it more Democratic-leaning.

“Looking at the new district map for the 6th District, it’s probably still not super competitive, but maybe more competitive now that you don’t have an incumbent running,” Gracey said. “Because incumbency advantage is a very powerful thing. I think it would still be a long shot for a Democrat to win the district. But not as much of a long shot as it was with Sam Graves in the race.”

Graves had previously opposed GOP redistricting efforts to go after Cleaver, contending it could backfire in wave Democratic election years. While he said on Friday that he didn’t think the 6th District general election would be competitive, he still thought the effort to split up Kansas City into three districts was risky.

“I think it’s a dangerous game. When you start doing mid-cycle redistricting. I just think that can backfire,” said Graves, adding that Democratic states like Maryland and Illinois target Republicans in the redistricting process. “But that’s up to the legislature. The legislature makes the decision, and the legislature made a decision in this case and finalized it. And I was ready to run in the new district or the old district. It really didn’t matter.”

Alford said the new map could benefit a candidate who is well known in the Kansas City area. While northeast Missouri has a rich political history, it’s sparsely populated compared to the western side of the 6th District.

“Whoever succeeds him in this 6th Congressional seat is going to have big shoes to fill, because it is a large swath – the entire top third of Missouri, basically above the Missouri River,” said Alford.

Republican contenders emerged shortly after Graves’ announcement. They included Chris Stigall, a northwest Missouri native who hosts a nationally syndicated show on the Salem News Channel.

He announced on X that he would be putting his radio career on hold to run for the seat.

“It’s time to put up or shut up,” Stigall said. “President Trump is going to need all the reinforcements he can get in Washington. And that’s why I’ve decided I’m going to leave my show. And I’m going to enter the arena today.”

Other contenders include Kansas City Councilman Nathan Willett and state Rep. Mazzie Christensen, who could join Kansas City resident Jim Ingram in the Republican primary. Willett is running for a state Senate seat encompassing Platte and Buchanan counties, while Christensen represents a rural northern Missouri House district.

Christensen confirmed to St. Louis Public Radio that she is considering running for the 6th District seat.

Willett said, “Today is about Sam.”

“Anyone considering should be paying tribute to his 26 years of service and not talking about what they are going to do until next week,” Willett said. “I do believe we should have a competitive GOP primary in north Missouri.”

Graves is expecting a contested GOP primary to succeed him, adding that it’s possible he may endorse someone.

“I’ll wait until everybody files, and then I’ll take a look at the candidates, and I’ll make a decision at that point on who I’m going to vote for and who I am going to support,” he said.

Josh Smead, Scot Pondelick and Matt Levine have filed to run as Democrats for the seat.

This story has been updated with comments from Graves and other officials.