Twenty members of the Kansas Legislature absorbed public comment on redistricting and the evils of gerrymandering during an August 2021 town hall in Lawrence. Similar town halls were held throughout the state. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Just because the law allows something doesn’t mean you should eagerly try it.
And just because Kansas Republicans want to redistrict the state to hand their party another seat in the U.S. House doesn’t mean that our best interests will be served in the process.
Let’s get this out the way first. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can enact partisan gerrymanders without running afoul of the Constitution. State lawmakers from coast to coast can slice and dice maps however they like to extract the last bit of blue or red juice. That’s usually done once a decade, after the U.S. Census, but Texas decided to go for broke this summer and pass a new set of maps to benefit Republicans. California lawmakers then passed a referendum that would allow similar redistricting there to benefit Democrats.
With the 2026 midterm elections looking like a tough test for the governing party, Republicans see an acute threat. So they’re bringing Kansans along for the ride. Never mind that we have only one seat to offer — the one held by U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat — GOP officials want it anyway.
They have a right to do so. If Republicans stick together and call a special session, they can override any veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
They can have their way.
But it won’t be good for the state. It won’t be good for our representation in Washington, D.C. And it won’t be good for those hundreds of thousands of Kansans who want to elect a politician from the party of their choice.
Kansas Reflector reporter Tim Carpenter collected comments from leading Republicans early this month, and a quick scan should show you which way the winds are blowing.
Former Gov. Jeff Colyer: “National Democrats have gerrymandered Congress to make it more liberal than the real America. Kansas needs to lead the way in restoring sanity to our federal government.”
Senate President Ty Masterson said a special session was under consideration: “I am actively engaged in the battle for the heart and soul of America, helping the president to Make America Great Again.”
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall: “Most of the blue states are gerrymandered to the point that … I don’t know what else they could do to change the ratio. The Democrats have always led in this gerrymandering.”
Both Colyer and Masterson are running for governor next year. That fact perhaps explains their eagerness to curry favor with President Donald Trump, who has encouraged such mid-decade redistricting. Again, however, that doesn’t make redrawing maps a good idea. It strikes me as a nakedly partisan exercise. The comments listed above support that.
Kansans do not overwhelmingly support the Republican Party or Trump. Looking at registered voters in the state, 898,429 are Republican, 497,801 are Democrat and 573,048 are unaffiliated. Taken as a whole, only 41% have declared themselves members of the GOP. In the 2024 presidential election, more than a half-million Kansans voted for Kamala Harris.
Kansans have repeatedly elected Democratic governors — John Carlin, Joan Finney, Kathleen Sebelius and Kelly in my lifetime alone. We have regularly elected Democratic U.S. representatives, such as Dan Glickman, Jim Slattery, Dennis Moore and Davids.
Republicans have tried to defeat Davids through gerrymandering before. Former Senate President Susan Wagle gave the game away in 2020, telling a Wichita audience: “So redistricting, it’s right around the corner. And if Governor Kelly can veto a Republican bill that gives us four Republican congressmen, that takes out Sharice Davids up in the 3rd — we can do that. I guarantee you we can draw four Republican congressional maps. But we can’t do it unless we have a two-thirds majority in the Senate and House.”
The party eventually secured those supermajorities and redrew maps. Surprise of surprises, it didn’t work. Davids hung on to her 3rd District seat. Will she survive next year’s election? It depends on how willing lawmakers are to touch the blazing-hot stove of partisanship.
Kansans have elected Democrats at the federal, state and local levels. State Republicans have the right to enact more obstacles in their path to doing so. But preventing the people you purport to represent the right to elect their chosen candidate?
We’ll see how that works out for them.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
