U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids left open the possibility she could run for the U.S. Senate if Republican lawmakers draw her out of the 3rd Congressional District with a new map that could be considered during a special session next month.
Davids was pointedly asked during a call with reporters Wednesday morning whether she would run for the U.S. Senate if the Legislature draws new election boundaries that effectively would make it much more difficult to be reelected to Congress.
“I don’t know what will happen,” Davids said.
“This is a hypothetical,” Davids said. “But I can tell you if they continue forward on this path and they’re successful in this, right at this point all I can say is that every option is on the table, including a statewide run.”
Asked whether she would run again for Congress, Davids said, “That is to be determined.”
“All of this is happening behind closed doors, which is one of the more frustrating parts about this,” Davids said.
“We know that the Republican legislators are coming out to the White House and are going to get their marching orders,” she said.
“But Kansans have yet to see what their plan is. I can’t tell you what the future steps look like because so much of this is happening behind closed doors.
“Frankly, that’s a big part of the problem as well.”
Davids held a virtual news conference with reporters Wednesday morning, the same day that Kansas lawmakers were scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump’s administration at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.
The event was intended to address how state lawmakers can advance the Trump agenda.
Although the invitation said nothing about Trump’s efforts to get states to draw election districts for members of Congress, there’s been a lot of speculation that the issue will surface.
Senate President Ty Masterson said he is certain two-thirds of the Senate will sign a petition calling for a special session.
“We will have no trouble having supermajority numbers,” Masterson said. “I can guarantee you we will have no trouble. Basically, we’re already there.”
The question is in the House, which is believed to be five to eight signatures short of the two-thirds needed to call a special session.
Davids is promising a legal fight if the Legislature draws a new map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, following the same path as Texas and Missouri after the president urged states to draw new districts to maximize GOP representation.
“We’re absolutely gearing up and will be ready to fight this in court if they continue down this road and are able to get a redistricting or gerrymandering done,” she said.
Three years ago, Kansas Supreme Court upheld the current congressional maps in a 4-3 decision.
The map adopted in 2022 reconfigured the 3rd Congressional District, adding more Republican rural areas in exchange for more Democratic-leaning urban areas in Kansas City.
The Supreme Court upheld the new congressional districts, finding that political partisanship could be used in drawing new election boundaries and that race was not a driving force in creating the new map.
However, one of the justices who supported that congressional map has since retired and was replaced by a new justice appointed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly who may not share the same legal philosophy, although the case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Davids’ comments come as opposition is starting to build against the Legislature drawing new congressional maps that would likely split Johnson County into multiple congressional districts and make the 3rd Congressional Districts more favorable to Republicans.
On Tuesday night, a couple hundred people turned out for a rally in Mission sponsored by the KS Fair Maps Coalition, which has been circulating a petition opposing any efforts to draw new election boundaries for members of Congress.
Longtime Johnson County resident and civic leader Steve Rose addressed the audience, criticizing any plan that would break up a county that has been represented by one member of Congress for years and is an economic engine for the state.
“This plan is a betrayal of Johnson County and the entire state of Kansas that benefits from our many, many decades of tremendous success,” Rose said.
“A vote to redistrict Joco would be, without a doubt, the worst idea I’ve witnessed my lifetime,” said Rose, who has resided in Johnson County for 78 years.
“It would be devastating economically, taking the golden goose and carving it into scattered pieces,” Rose told the crowd.
“It would dilute the hyper focus of a single congressman or woman of either party and replace that singular perspective with a ragtag chaos of split personalities without a clue,” he said.
“There would be no election,” he said. “The scheme would come from the Legislature alone, five years earlier than the next census, which has been the norm until now.
“Changing the rules now is neither right nor fair.”
He called on Johnson County lawmakers – Republican and Democrats – to stop any effort to draw new election boundaries.
He said a vote for a new map was an “anti Johnson County vote.”
“They must oppose new maps that split up our county,” he said.
