Kansas Republicans don’t have the votes to gerrymander the state’s congressional maps in 2026, GOP leadership said. Republicans say they aren’t even close.
Takeaways
- A petition to force a special session on congressional redistricting previously failed.
- Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins said he isn’t going to hold a vote on an issue when he doesn’t have enough support, and he is well short.
- Hawkins said he has the votes to pass the House, but the veto override is where it would fail.
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said the issue is a priority for him. But he said Republicans are about 20 votes short of overriding a veto and approving maps that would redraw the Kansas City-area district currently represented by U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Roeland Park Democrat.
“If I don’t have the votes to pass something, I’m not going to put people on a vote just to have a vote,” Hawkins said. “That’s kind of where I’m at right now. I do not have the votes.”
Redistricting will come up in 2026 and Hawkins said the Senate should have the votes. Republicans have the votes to approve a bill, but Gov. Laura Kelly has vowed to veto the bill.
“This is the one and only time I can think of in my seven years that I’ve said I will veto this,” she said. “If this is not unconstitutional, it’s certainly unethical and should have no place in Kansas politics.”
Indiana Republicans have also rejected a push to redraw congressional maps. But last year, Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly redrew the district, including parts of Kansas City, that is represented by Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
Republicans need 84 votes in the Kansas House to override a veto. About 20 votes shy puts them at about 64 votes. Bills in the House need 63 lawmakers to vote yes to pass legislation.
Republicans failed to force a special session in the fall to work on redistricting. That effort was 10 signatures short of being approved. Hawkins said some lawmakers who signed the petition would have voted against gerrymandered maps.
Rallying that many Republicans is “a very tough lift,” he said. So he doesn’t expect the measure to pass unless something changes.
Republicans were targeting Davids, the only elected Kansas Democrat in the federal government. The GOP was accused of redrawing congressional maps in 2022 to oust Davids, but she won by a larger margin in the next election.
Rep. Mark Schreiber, an Emporia Republican, said in the fall that congressional districts should be redrawn for population changes, not political gain. Rep. Bill Sutton, a Gardner Republican, said months ago it’s a questionable decision to redraw maps. And Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, previously said the maps were drawn well in 2022 and redrawing them differently could get them struck down in court.
Defeating the special session was celebrated by Democrats, who said redrawing maps is cheating.
“The people we’ve talked to across the state believe that regardless of political party, cheating is wrong,” said House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat.
