Emanuel Cleaver

Emanuel Cleaver II grew up in Texas, where his family lived in a small wooden house that had once been a slave cabin.¹ Several generations of his family were preachers.¹ He and his wife have four children and grandchildren in Kansas City.²

Cleaver earned a bachelor's degree at Prairie View A&M and a Master of Divinity at Saint Paul School of Theology.³ He spent more than three decades as pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City.³ During his city council years, he negotiated an arrangement with his bishop to continue in both roles while donating most of his council salary to charity.⁴

After twelve years on the city council, Cleaver became Kansas City's first Black mayor in 1991 and served eight years.² He later hosted KCUR's Under the Clock before entering Congress in 2005.³ He has chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and now serves as the senior Democrat on the Financial Services subcommittee covering housing and insurance.²

Housing remains central to his legislative work.² He helped write the 2016 Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act, which updated federal housing programs and became law.² He also helped develop the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.⁵ The package became law in July 2026, with changes to rural housing assistance, manufactured housing and affordable housing programs.⁶ His November opponents are Republican Rick Brattin and Libertarian Randy Langkraehr.⁷