CREVE COEUR, Mo.—For at least the second time since Missouri lawmakers finished work on new boundaries for the state’s congressional districts two weeks ago, a candidate who filed to run for a U.S. House seat is bowing out after being drawn out of a district.

Ben Samuels, a former aide to former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and current Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, was running in a three-way Democratic party primary for the second congressional district seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin. He officially suspended his campaign Friday morning.

What You Need To Know

  • Primary election is August 2

  • Samuels was running against Trish Gunby, Ray Reed in Democratic primary for Missouri's second congressional district

  • Second district now runs from St. Louis County to parts of Warren, Montgomery County.

  • Samuels will support Gunby against incumbent U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner

The map passed by lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson put Samuels’ Creve Coeur home in the first district, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis. Under state law, candidates don’t have to live in their districts to run, but Samuels acknowledged that the potential for it presented challenges.

In an interview Thursday, Samuels suggested that he was personally targeted in the redistricting process.

“The fact that I got personally drawn out of the district is broadly reflective of so many of the issues we have with the way that redistricting is done not just in Missouri but everywhere in the country where people can just draw districts for themselves, draw districts for their friends, for their political allies, use it to spite their political opponents with no consideration for what’s best for voters, what’s best for communities, what represents fair and partisan balance of the state. None of that really gets considered anymore and people were so brazen throughout the whole legislative session here that it’s no surprise but it’s certainly disappointing.”

Samuels joins current State Rep. Sara Walsh, who dropped out of the fourth congressional district race after her Ashland area home was drawn into the third district.

For months, as lawmakers in the GOP-controlled House and Senate argued over the makeup of a new map, hard-line conservatives wanted a partisan split that would favor Republicans by a 7-1 count in the state’s eight districts. Lawmakers from St. Charles County fought to have the entire county in a single district. Shoring up the second district, seen as the only one considered as a potential swing district, was also a priority.

The end-result of the redrawn second district? A boundary that stretches from St. Louis County to parts of St. Charles, Warren and Montgomery County.

“The new second district in particular it helps no one. You have a district now where you’ve got a strong urban component, a strong suburban component, and a strong rural component and they’re all communities that are very different from one another,” Samuels said. I think there was no consideration given to how do we create a district that represents this community best or these sets of communities best and it was entirely driven by how do we achieve certain political outcomes that are desirable for the people in the state legislature and how do we achieve a partisan bent that is desirable for us and that’s a broken system.“

Samuels said he will vote for Trish Gunby in the August 2 primary against her remaining opponent, Ray Reed. His campaign will refund donations if supporters want their money back. What’s left will be given to other candidate campaigns and organizations, he said.