The idea of a new congressional map that would split Johnson County’s representation into two or more districts faded this week, but not completely. And while statehouse Republicans vow to keep pushing for redrawn boundaries when the next legislative session starts, Democrats are promising to fight such an effort.
Statehouse Republican leadership acknowledged Tuesday that they would not be able to get enough votes to call the special session on redistricting that they had hoped to begin Friday. But Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson promised the issue will be a “top priority” when the Kansas Legislature opens in January.
Masterson, who has been a main force pushing for early redistricting, said he’d put it on the agenda because Kansans’ support for President Donald Trump in previous elections showed residents, “expect leaders to keep fighting for his America-first agenda.”
House Speaker Dan Hawkins issued his own statement, saying a special session “is always going to be an uphill battle,” but that his party members still wanted to have “a conversation” about redistricting along with other issues.
But the clock is ticking, not only for getting new maps approved but also for the people who plan to get themselves on the ballot in 2026.
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, Kansas’ only Democratic member of Congress and the representative who stands to lose votes if part of Johnson County is removed from her district, said during a press call Tuesday that as long as Republicans move forward with the early redistricting idea, “I will continue to say that all options are on the table,” for the next election. That includes challenging U.S. Senator Roger Marshall in 2026 or even running in a newly created district, she said.
Nationwide push for redrawn boundaries
Republicans in Kansas and other states began an effort to redraw their congressional boundaries at Trump’s suggestion. Normally Congressional boundaries are decided once a decade, after the census bureau updates its statistics showing where population has shifted.
But with the prospect of losing a narrow GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, Trump had asked for new maps ahead of schedule that would give advantage to Republicans. Kansas was among the states whose legislators took up the idea.
Kansas Republican lawmakers had hoped to convene a special session on Friday in Topeka to begin the process. For them to make that happen, they needed two-thirds of the members of both the House and Senate to sign a petition. The Senate achieved that, Masterson said, but there were still not enough House signers.
New map backlash
The plan drew pushback from Democrats and others in Johnson County who feared new maps that would combine a largely suburban area with less populated rural areas would dilute their voice.
Kansas Fair Maps’ petition against the prospect of redistricting had received more than 2,400 signatures as of Thursday afternoon, and rallies and town halls drew hundreds.
Kansas House Democratic Leader Brandon Woodard said his party would not rest easy on this week’s news.
“This is only one win,” he said.
“The battle continues until sine die of next year,” Woodard said. “We’ll take the fight day in and day out to make sure they are not successful in their redistricting effort.”
Davids praised Kansans for making their thoughts heard.
“While today is absolutely a win for fairness and for Kansans’ voices being heard, it is also a reminder that we can’t get complacent,” she said, adding that the major Democratic victories throughout the country on Election Day means that “extreme politicians in (Washington) D.C. are panicking.”
“I promise everyone in Kansas and everyone in the Third District I’m going to keep fighting to ensure Kansans choose their representatives and not the other way around,” Davids said.
Practical considerations
Drawing a new congressional map during the next legislative session would put the 2026 elections on a compressed timeline for candidates and for the local election offices that print the ballots.
The redistricting process itself takes time for lawmakers to negotiate the maps, shepherd them through the legislative process, hear public comment, and potentially deal with vetoes and/or court challenges.
The legislative session starts Jan. 12, 2026, and ballots must be ready for advance voting before the Aug. 4 primaries. And even though the filing deadline for candidates is June 1, fundraising for the U.S. Senate and House races usually starts well ahead of that.
Woodard said he expects Republican leadership would get started at the very beginning of the session. If new maps are approved, and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes them, which is likely, Woodard said the Republicans would need a supermajority to override her veto.
If the redistricting jumped that hurdle, there could still be a court challenge. Davids has earlier said she is prepared to take it to the state Supreme Court, which would then have 30 days to review the constitutionality of the plan.
“I imagine this will dominate much of the next legislative session,” Woodard said, adding that there’s still a question whether Kansas House Republicans could get enough votes to override a veto.
Woodard did not indicate who the Republican holdouts were, but said it was a group of moderate Republicans and rural conservatives.
“There were petition signers for the special session that were hard nos on redistricting, and there are several conservative holdouts who believe that if this shoe were on the other foot, they wouldn’t want us to do that to them,” he said.
In the meantime, election workers will be preparing for an August primary, and candidates who had filed before the new maps could find themselves re-registering to run and raise money in a different district.
In the U.S. Senate race Davids is considering, other Democratic candidates have begun to emerge. Those who have set up webpages include Christy Davis, Kansas director for USDA Rural Development; Sandy Spidel Neumann, who works in financial services; Anne Parelkar, an Overland Park lawyer; and Mike Soetaert of Wellington.
Davids said Tuesday that she will continue to keep a Senate bid among her possibilities, but for now, “this is not about me. It is about every Kansan having a fair voice in government.”
Keep reading: JoCo senator: No ‘specific conversation’ about redistricting at GOP meeting in D.C.
