A drawn-out redistricting process in Kansas resulted in few alterations overall to its congressional map, but the state’s only Democratic-held seat will likely be even more competitive this November.
Kansas is no stranger to dramatic redistricting cycles, and this most recent round proved no different. Earlier in February, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the plan drawn by GOP mapmakers, but her veto was then overridden by Republican supermajorities in the state Legislature.
And so began the map’s trip through the state courts, in which a district judge initially struck down the plan for diluting the influence of Democratic Black and Hispanic voters. (The new lines split Wyandotte County, home to Kansas City, between the 2nd and 3rd districts.) But in May, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the original map could stand, meaning these will be the lines used for the next decade.
The new map retains its three districts that are reliably Republican. But the Democratic-held 3rd District, already a top target, will almost surely become one of the GOP’s prime pickup opportunities this year.
Republicans currently hold a 3R-1D advantage in the House delegation. If the GOP does indeed flip the 3rd District, Democrats will once again be shut out of Kansas’s congressional representation, as they had been for much of the past decade pre-2018.
1st District
The big 1st (appropriately nicknamed the “Big First”) spans western and north-central Kansas, connecting communities from Garden City to Salina to Manhattan. The district now reaches farther toward the state’s eastern border, picking up Jefferson County as well as parts of Jackson County and Douglas County (containing Lawrence, and the University of Kansas)...