Kansas Republicans aim to protect, gain seats in U.S. House

Editor’s note: This report was updated Nov. 1.

STATE STATS

Voter makeup: Kansas had 1,994,621 registered voters as of September, according to the secretary of state’s office, with 893,180 listed as Republicans and 512,630 as Democrats. Nearly 25,000 people are registered as Libertarians, while 561,916 people are not affiliated with any party.

Voting: State law allows voters to register until three weeks before an election. Each voter must show identification. To vote by mail, Kansans must request an absentee ballot no later than seven days before the election. In May, the state Supreme Court upheld a 2021 law that requires election officials to match absentee voters’ signatures to their voter registration records.

PRESIDENTIAL

Kansas has six Electoral College votes. Kansans have voted for a Republican presidential candidate in all but seven elections since the state’s founding in 1861. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

In Kansas’ March 19 Republican presidential primary, 75.5 percent of Republicans voted for former President Donald Trump, with just over 16 percent picking former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. In the state’s Democratic primary, President Joe Biden garnered just under 84 percent of votes, with Marianne Williamson receiving 3.5 percent of votes. About 10 percent of Democratic voters selected none of the names shown. After Biden dropped out of the presidential race, all Kansas delegates unanimously supported Vice President Kamala Harris as the party nominee at the Democratic National Convention.

In 2020, former President Donald Trump received 56.2 percent of votes in the state in the general election, with President Joe Biden receiving 41.6 percent.

U.S. HOUSE

Republicans hold three of Kansas’ has four seats in the U.S. House. Two of those districts are likely to be competitive this year.

• In District 1, which includes a large, rural swath of western and northern Kansas, incumbent Republican Rep. Tracey Mann, 47, overwhelmingly won his primary on Aug. 6. On the Democratic ticket, University of Kansas academic adviser Paul Buskirk, 63, is running for the seat after unsuccessfully campaigning for the U.S. Senate in 2022. Buskirk supports abortion, and he frequently promotes unity and working across political divides. He has said he supports pathways to citizenship for migrants but also that the border needs better monitoring and management. Mann was the state’s lieutenant governor before running for Congress in 2020. A fifth-generation farm owner, he also works as a commercial real estate broker. Mann serves on the House committees on agriculture, transportation and infrastructure, and small businesses.

• The 2nd District encompasses most of eastern Kansas, where Rep. Jacob LaTurner, a Republican, is not running for reelection. The Republican candidate, former state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, 56, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2022. Across the aisle, former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, 69, is also seeking a political comeback. She held the 2nd District seat for one term 15 years ago. In 2008, Boyda rejected financial assistance from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, saying, “Kansas voters should control Kansas campaigns.” She defeated one primary challenger this year and departed from some typical Democratic Party positions. She opposes allowing children to participate in school sports for the opposite sex. In 2009, President Barack Obama named her the deputy assistant secretary of defense for manpower and personnel at the Pentagon. Schmidt received Trump’s endorsement earlier this year, but most analysts categorize the 2nd District as a likely Democratic win in November’s election.

• In District 3, incumbent Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids, 44, is running for reelection. Prasanth Reddy, a physician and Air Force reservist, is a new addition to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program. This afforded him extra resources for the competitive election, helping him to raise $1.3 million in the primary alone. Davids was one of the first Native American women elected to Congress when she won her seat during the blue wave of 2018. Davids, who is openly lesbian, has introduced several pro-LGBT bills in Congress and supports abortion. Despite redistricting in 2022 that made the 3rd District more Republican, Davids won reelection by 12 percent. Reddy said he is pro-life but supports exceptions to pro-life laws in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother.

• In District 4, incumbent state Rep. Ron Estes, 68, a Republican, is running for a fourth term after first winning a special election in 2017 to replace former state Rep. Mike Pompeo, whom Trump appointed to lead the CIA. Estes is pro-life and has called for defunding Planned Parenthood. In 2020, he was one of 126 Republican Congress members to sign an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit that challenged the results of the presidential election. In the general election, Estes will face Democratic challenger Esau Freeman, a business representative for a workers’ union. Freeman is campaigning on a pro-abortion platform and advocates for decriminalizing marijuana use.

Dig deeper:

• Read Josh Schumacher’s report on July 2024 Kansas Supreme Court rulings that again declared a right to abortion in the state constitution.

• Listen to Leah Savas’ coverage on Kansas churches’ differing approaches to pro-life advocacy.

• Read Johanna Huebscher’s report about a controversial police raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper.

• Read Lauren Canterberry’s report about a judge’s ruling blocking new Title IX guidance in Kansas and three other states.

• Leah Savas reports on how OBGYN doctors continue to treat patients and abide by pro-life protections across the country, including in Kansas.

Visit the WORLD Election Center 2024 to follow our state-by-state coverage between now and November.