Kansas legislative election: Democrats suffer gerrymandering hangover? GOP strikes messaging gold?
TOPEKA — Johnson County Democratic Party executive director Cole Robinson says the outcome of November elections for the Kansas Legislature affirmed the partisan value of Republicans’ supermajorities in the House and Senate, and the gravity of political calculations by voters in the 2030 governor’s race.
Robinson said that from a Democrat’s perspective it was essential to focus during the next three election cycles on ending the GOP’s two-thirds majorities in the Legislature and to place another Democrat in the governor’s office in 2030. Both steps would be pivotal to limiting the power of Republican lawmakers to once again gerrymander legislative districts for their benefit when boundaries were redrawn in 2032, he said.
“If you’re in favor of more moderate politics in Kansas, the most important race of our intermediate lifetimes is the 2030 gubernatorial,” Robinson said. “If Democrats should break out of the superminority at some point, then that 2030 governor’s race will allow for fair maps in 2032.”
The November election affirmed that the Senate and House maps signed into law in 2022 would give Republican candidates decisive advantages through the next three election cycles, he said.
https://kansasreflector.com/2024/11/25/kansas-legislative-election-democrats-suffer-gerrymandering-hangover-gop-strikes-messaging-gold/