Less than four years after winning their preferred congressional map, some Kansas Republicans want to reshape the state’s U.S. House districts again ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. If they’re successful, it could mean ousting the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation.
Kansas would join a wave of Republican- and Democrat-led states engaging in overt gerrymandering to tip the balance of power in the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives.
In a statement, Republican Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson said he would consider redistricting “as a part of the bigger battle for the heart and soul of the country.”
“It is crucial that President Trump can continue working with a Republican Congress to keep delivering on his agenda and ushering in America’s comeback,” Masterson said.
Redistricting normally happens every 10 years, following the national census. And politicians typically shy away from making partisan objectives explicit during the map-drawing process.
But this year, political pressures at the federal level have pushed state Legislatures to ignore those norms. Texas, California, Missouri and several other states are in various stages of mid-decade redistricting — with the unvarnished goal of electing candidates of their preferred party.
The 3rd Congressional District in northeastern Kansas, which Democratic Representative Sharice Davids has held since 2019, would be the likely target of gerrymandering by Republican state lawmakers.
“Voters should pick their representatives, not the other way around,” Davids told the Kansas News Service in an email. “This unprecedented step would only further polarize this country and harm our democracy.”
Even more gerrymandered
The redistricting effort may be more difficult in Kansas than in other states. It’s only been a few years since the Republican-dominated state Legislature passed congressional maps targeting Davids’ district in the Kansas City metro area.
Those drawings sparked intense political debate and a state Supreme Court case, which the map’s proponents won. Supporters said redistricting ensured equal representation in Kansas, while civil rights groups and Democrats argued the new boundaries split up racially diverse areas for partisan advantage.
The 2022 map swallowed the left-leaning city of Lawrence in eastern Kansas into the vast, mostly rural 1st District, which stretches over 350 miles to the state's western border with Colorado. The plan also bisected Wyandotte County, the state’s most ethnically and economically diverse county.
A nonpartisan gerrymandering research project gave the 2022 Kansas electoral map an "F" for partisan fairness. Yet Davids held onto her seat by wide margins in 2022 and 2024.
Patrick Miller, a political science professor at Kent State University who served as an expert witness in the 2022 Kansas redistricting trial, said Republicans have one option left to create four safe GOP districts.
“The only way that you ensure that Sharice Davids loses, or any Democrat, is you break Johnson County up,” Miller said.
Johnson County is the most populous in the state. Its leftward shift over the past few decades has underpinned Democrats’ ability to win statewide races and ballot initiatives.
Lawmakers in 2022 proposed several maps that involved cleaving Johnson County in two, but settled on one called Ad Astra 2, which left the county intact.
Miller suspects that may have had something to do with local politics.
“There are Republicans from Johnson County in the Legislature who would have to be on board with this,” he said.
Republicans would need to rally nearly every member of their two-thirds majorities in the state House and Senate to pass a new map, since Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would likely veto it.
Republican Chris Croft, a Legislative leader in the large city of Overland Park in Johnson County, did not respond to a request for comment on proposed redistricting efforts.
Kevin Walker, chief policy officer for the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, said his organization opposed splitting Johnson County up in 2022 and would take the same stance now. He said dividing the county between two districts would threaten its history of strong economic development.
“The success that we have had has come through a high degree of collaboration,” he said. “We don't need more boundaries splitting us.”
How would mid-decade redistricting work in Kansas?
Mid-decade redistricting would break longstanding norms in Kansas. But it’s unclear whether it would violate state law.
The Kansas Constitution requires the Legislature to redraw state House of Representatives and Senate districts every 10 years, but it does not address congressional districts.
That’s according to the Kansas Legislative Research Department, which serves as a nonpartisan liaison between the state Legislature and the U.S. Census Bureau for the purposes of mapmaking.
Nevertheless, redrawing the lines before the next planned redistricting cycle in 2032 would likely involve skipping established processes put in place for thoroughness and transparency.
“Since at least 1992, the redistricting process has involved years of preparation, specialized mapping software, convening redistricting advisory groups, and hosting Legislative listening tours,” the KLRD said in an email.
To pass a map in time for the 2026 midterm elections, Legislators would have to barrel through those steps, wrangle two-thirds of the state House and Senate to override a veto, and pass review by the state Supreme Court.
And if proponents wanted to get that done before the next Legislative session begins in January, they would need the same veto-proof majorities to convene a special session.
Still, big names in the Kansas GOP have said they want to join the mid-decade redistricting bandwagon.
After Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe posted a video on social media about calling lawmakers into a special session for redistricting, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab responded, “Redistricting now has merit.”
Former Republican Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer has also endorsed the idea.
Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University, said Kansas Republicans will have to weigh the risk of weathering political pain at home against the possible reward of gaining the national party one additional seat in the U.S. House.
The stakes are higher, Beatty said, in a midterm election that tends to disfavor the party in power.
“Is that something, with a slim supermajority, they want to ram through and potentially risk blowback?” he said.
Zane Irwin reports on politics, campaigns and elections for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zaneirwin@kcur.org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
