House Speaker Dan Hawkins signaled this week that the Legislature faces an uphill climb to draw new election districts for members of Congress in the upcoming legislative session.
“We going to have a lot of work to do,” Hawkins told national conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt in an interview at a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
“Quite frankly, there’s going to have be something change in the connection out there,” Hawkins said in the interview at the ALEC meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.
The House came up six signatures short of the 84 needed to call the Legislature into a special session to draw new maps. The Senate had 29, two more than needed.
While 78 House members signed the petition, there’s doubt about whether all of them could be counted on to support an override of the governor’s inevitable veto of a redistricting plan.
There’ve been suggestions that perhaps as many as 10 lawmakers who signed the petition were only agreeing to have a conversation about redistricting but were not necessarily committed to drawing new maps.
Hewitt asked Hawkins if Kansas legislators understood that politics were nationalized and if the U.S. House favors Democrats by one seat it will be because Kansas didn’t act.
“Believe me, I made that argument at our retreat,” Hawkins said of last September’s meeting of the Republican caucus where lawmakers discussed redistricting.
Hawkins said there wasn’t much outside pressure brought to bear on lawmakers to sign a petition calling for a special session.
He suggested outside help might be needed if the issue is addressed during the regular session, which starts in January.
“The awareness is increasing and it will continue to increase,” Hawkins said. “But quite frankly, there’s going to have to be some folks out there that help.
“Unfortunately, the administration or any of the associations out there that would support the administration did not engage in helping get the special session.
“Truly, there’s going to have to be some serious work done between now and January to get that up,” he told Hewitt.
Club for Growth spent about $7,400 on television redistricting ads in Kansas during September, accusing “liberals” of trying to “rig” elections by drawing election boundaries to give Democrats control of Congress.
“State Republicans are teaming up with President Trump to fight back with a plan to pass new maps for Kansas,” the ad said.
“Tell legislators: Restore fairness and support fair maps.”
The group spent about $4,300 in Kansas City, about $1,400 in the Pittsburg area, about $1,400 in Wichita and western Kansas and about $300 in Topeka.
There wasn’t much else visible from the Trump administration or its allies to get the Legislature to call a special session.
Trump has been calling on states to draw new election boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterm election in order to preserve Republican control of the House.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld a new map approved by the Texas Legislature that was intended to give the GOP five more seats in Congress.
It is believed that Indiana could be bellwether for Kansas if lawmakers there approve a new congressional map after first balking at the idea.
The Indiana House has passed a new map that would eliminate two Democratic-leaning districts. It goes to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.
In Kansas, it remains to be seen how much lingering resentment there is in the House after Hawkins reassigned three committee chairs and four vice chairs who didn’t sign the petition, notably including the second-highest ranking Republican in the chamber.
The Kansas redistricting effort would focus on the 3rd Congressional District, represented by Sharice Davids, the lone Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation.
Any efforts to draw new district lines in Kansas would likely lead to a new map that carves up suburban Johnson County into multiple districts – potentially into as many as three – to give it more of a Republican flavor.
Johnson County has been a stronghold for Davids, who has prevailed in two elections since 2022 when her 3rd District was redrawn to give her more rural areas in exchange for urban areas in Kansas City.
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