Democratic governor’s $2 million PAC failed to diminish GOP leverage in Legislature
BY: TIM CARPENTER, SHERMAN SMITH, ALLISON KITE AND MAX MCCOY
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Kansas Republicans appear to have preserved the two-thirds edge in the House and Senate despite a costly effort by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to diminish the supermajority and make it easier to veto legislation.
Democrats hoped to gain two seats in the House and three in the Senate to break the GOP advantage, but unofficial results indicated Republican candidates prevailed in eight of nine closely watched House contests and in five of six Senate races central to the power struggle.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach celebrated accomplishments of Republican legislative candidates and said it was time to use that partisan leverage to change the Kansas Constitution to allow governors to nominate people to the Kansas Supreme Court subject to confirmation by the Senate.
“Kansans rejected the liberal agenda and expanded Republican supermajorities,” Kobach said. “Now it’s time to reform how we select our justices.”
State Rep. Nick Hoheisel, a Wichita Republican with a big lead on his Democrat rival, put it simply: “A good night for the Right Future of Kansas.”
In nine hotly contested House races, unofficial results with all precincts reporting indicated Democratic Rep. Virgil Weigel of Topeka held off Republican challenger Pennie Boyer-Kloos of Berryton by a margin of 55% to 45%. That was a rare bright spot in the Democratic Party’s ledger.
In Hutchinson, Democratic Rep. Jason Probst appeared to lose his reelection campaign against Republican Kyler Sweely. The margin, with all precincts reporting, was 52% for Sweely and 48% for Probst. Democratic Reps. Dennis Miller of Olathe and Allison Hougland of Olathe also appeared to lose as well.
Other GOP victories, based on preliminary vote counts: Leawood Rep. Carl Turner deflected Democrat Ace Allen; Lenexa Rep. Laura Williams outran Democrat Betsey Lasister; Shawnee Rep. Angela Stiens defeated Democrat Vanessa Vaughn West; and Wichita Rep. Sandy Pickert beat Democrat Veronica Gillette.
Among six Senate races considered influential in terms of the supermajority, Democratic incumbent Sen. Usha Reddi of Manhattan was down 500 votes against Republican challenger Brad Starnes of Riley. With all precincts reporting in that race, Starnes was up 51% to 49% for Reddi.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Pittman of Leavenworth trailed Republican Jeff Klemp by 61 votes out of more than 30,000 cast. The race could be headed to a recount.
Two Senate incumbents viewed as vulnerable by Democrats, Republican Mike Thompson of Shawnee and Kellie Warren of Leawood, likely won another four-year term by 2,000-vote margins against Democratic challengers. In the competition for two open Senate seats in Olathe, Republican Rep. Adam Thomas and GOP candidate T.J. Rose also looked to have won by solid margins.
Winners for more than one-third of the 165 seats in the Kansas Legislature were known before polls opened Tuesday, but that reality concealed keen interest among Republicans and Democrats in the outcome of other races for House and Senate.
Fifty-eight seats in the Legislature — 50 in the House and eight in the Senate — were unofficially settled in the August primary. The victor of those 58 contests didn’t draw a general election opponent, so they were allowed to relax and watch as others sweated out the fall campaign. Of the 58, Republicans claimed 37 seats and Democrats the remaining 21.
Supermajority showdown
Republican leaders of the Legislature, including House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson, devoted years to redrawing legislative boundaries, setting a voter-friendly agenda and recruiting Republican legislative candidates to build upon the GOP supermajority.
“We need our supermajorities in order to override some of the mess that we’re in, right?” Masterson said.
Kelly, in her second term as governor, created a $2 million PAC and endorsed candidates with potential of flipping House and Senate seats to help her push back against the GOP agenda.
In the days prior to the November election, the governor said she was confident Democrats would claim two House seats and three Senate seats to end the supermajority ahead of the 2025 legislative session.
“The most important thing is to be able to break the supermajority that has existed for way too long,” Kelly said. “It is very difficult to govern when you have folks who are dedicating themselves to ensuring that you don’t get anything done, so the administration is not successful. It is time to switch that out.”
The Democratic National Committee invested $660,000 in Kansas to try to break the GOP supermajorities, DNC officials said.
Hawkins said preservation of the GOP supermajority was important because Kelly has been too quick to veto bills. He disagreed with the governor’s rejection of legislation on election security as well as gender-affirming health care and sports participation by transgender individuals. He denounced her use of authority to line-item veto clusters of specific budget appropriations.
And, to the deep frustration of Kansas GOP leadership, Kelly kicked to the curb a series of tax-reduction bills developed by Republican lawmakers. That deadlock led to a special session in 2024 that produced the compromise expected to cut state tax revenue by $1.2 billion over three years.
Masterson, who has led the Senate since 2021, said he was stunned Kelly voted legislation during the regular 2024 session that would have trimmed income, sales and property taxes.
“Her shifting reasons for vetoing tax relief have now morphed into the absurd, especially when the state she governs is awash with billions in surplus money that belongs to the people,” Masterson said. “She has opted for the ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ approach.”
Democratic Sen. Ethan Corson, a Fairway Democrat who took a 12,000-vote lead over Republican challenger Dave Dannov when results started rolling in, said he would have welcomed a voter revolt that toppled the GOP’s two-thirds edge in the Legislature.
“The Republican supermajority has stood in the way of common sense policies like Medicaid expansion, and instead pursued an agenda that includes attacks on the LGBT community and stripping Kansans of the ability to make their own health care decisions,” he said.
In Emporia, incumbent Republican Rep. Mark Schreiber said he tried not to get wrapped up in “a lot of hyperbole and the drama that goes on,” opting instead to “stick to the facts and explain my position.”
“I think that comes back to my science background — I’m a biology graduate,” he said. “It just never caught on with me to call people names. It’s kind of childlike, and both sides do it, but for me I’d just as soon stick to the issues.”