Kansas Republicans are getting closer to redrawing the state’s congressional map hoping to kick out U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the only Democrat in the state’s federal delegation. 

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said this week the Senate has enough signatures to force a special session. The House is still trying to get two-thirds of its members to sign a petition to bring lawmakers back to Topeka. 

Special sessions can be called by the governor, but Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly refused to do so. So GOP leadership needs two-thirds of the state legislature to sign a petition. House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, told the Kansas Reflector that he wants to bring lawmakers back.

He needs 84 signatures on the petition, and there are 88 Republicans in the House. 

“There are many crucial issues percolating that require a special session,” he said. “Unlike Democrats in Congress, Kansas Republicans are committed to doing their jobs regardless of the time of year.”

Redrawing maps is widely condemned by Democrats, who say gerrymandering is not in the best interest of Kansans.

“You can’t change the rules mid-fight just because you’re afraid you can’t win, yet that’s exactly what extreme Republicans in Topeka are doing,” U.S. Rep Sharice Davids, a Roeland Park Democrat, told The Reflector. “This is a blatant attempt to silence Kansas voters and protect their own political power. Kansans deserve fairness, not backroom deals influenced by D.C. to hurt Kansans.”

Democrats accused Republicans of gerrymandering in 2022. Once passed, those maps quickly found their way into court battles and eventually were upheld by the state Supreme Court. That court ruling said it is possible for maps to be illegal, but only in certain circumstances. 

Despite the gerrymandered maps, Davids won reelection in 2022 and 2024.

What makes a congressional map illegal?

Congressional maps can’t target minority groups. A case at the U.S. Supreme Court is trying to undo that precedent, but as it stands now, maps can’t divide racial groups. 

The 2022 map was accused of racial gerrymandering for how it divided Wyandotte County. Northern parts of Kansas City, Kansas, were taken from Davids’ district and placed in a largely rural district stretching from the Nebraska border to the Oklahoma border. But simply dividing a minority county doesn’t by itself qualify as racial gerrymandering, said Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall in the opinion. 

Those minority groups need to be large enough, geographically compact enough to be a majority in a district and politically cohesive. Moreover, there need to be enough white voters in the new district to dilute those votes. 

“A plaintiff bringing a racial gerrymandering claim must demonstrate at the outset that ‘race was the predominant factor motivating the legislature’s decision to place a significant number of voters within or without a particular district,’” the opinion said. 

Racial gerrymandering is the main way a map can be found unconstitutional in Kansas. 

Can Republicans legally gerrymander? 

The 2022 case provides a lot of context for any future lawsuits. 

Lawyers in oral arguments told the justices that the 2022 map clearly favored one party and it dilutes voters’ power to elect who they want. 

The city of Lawrence even sued the state, saying the city was cut up and its residents are worse off because of it. Lawyers for Lawrence said people may become less politically involved if they think the outcome of the election seems predetermined. 

“All political power is inherent in the people, and that government is here for equal protection and benefit,” Sharon Brett, an attorney who tried to get the maps thrown out, said to the Supreme Court in 2022. “(In a previous case), this court said … that all Kansans should have equal power and influence in the making of laws that govern them.”

None of these arguments worked, though. 

In his opinion, Stegall said everyone still has one vote. That means the maps are legal. 

Other states have passed laws banning partisan gerrymandering, like Florida — though recent court action may have weakened that law. Kansas has no such law. Until a law like that is passed, gerrymandered maps can continue to be passed in Kansas. 

Nathaniel Birkhead, a political science professor at Kansas State University, said “there’s absolutely zero chance” Republicans are going to pass laws banning partisan gerrymandering. 

Missouri has gone down a similar route to gerrymander maps without new census data. The state has just adopted a congressional map that largely breaks up the district held by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Kansas City.

Mid-decade redistricting was legally unprecedented. But that may not give Democrats any better of a chance to win in court. One justice who ruled to keep the maps has since retired and been replaced by a Laura-Kelly appointee. It isn’t clear if that will change the 4-3 ruling because Kansas law is clear.

“I’m not aware of any statute that says that you can’t redraw (a map mid-decade),” Birkhead said, “and I can’t imagine the court would use that as a basis to throw it out.”