Redistrict Kansas to push Sharice Davids out of office? It may backfire, expert says
Attempting to gerrymander U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids out of office could be risky for Kansas Republicans, according to a leading expert on redistricting.
Doing so would require a massive overhaul of the state’s congressional maps to break up Johnson County’s voting power.
“Kansas Republicans already gerrymandered maps to make them as GOP-friendly as possible, all while promising to keep Johnson County together. Now, they’re preparing to break that promise and stack the maps even more in their favor,” Davids said in a statement to The Star.
Republican lawmakers have made no firm commitment to join Missouri and other GOP-controlled states in the mid-decade redistricting blitz. But most Republican candidates running for governor next year say they support redrawing maps with the goal of ousting Davids.
There’s no guarantee it would work, said Sam Wang, a neuroscience professor who leads the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which analyzes the equity of congressional maps.
Kansas’ maps already have a partisan fairness grade of “F,” signifying a “significant Republican advantage,” and redistricting could backfire by making multiple districts competitive for Democrats, Wang said.
“Considering that incumbent presidents lose a median of 13 seats (in the U.S. House), and the last time Trump was president, his party lost 41 seats, it is not clear that it is worth all that disruption to get a 50-50 shot at one seat,” Wang said.
The 3rd District, which Davids has represented since 2019, includes all of Johnson County, Anderson County, Franklin County and Miami County, and part of Wyandotte County.
During the last round of redistricting in 2022, Republican lawmakers divided the Democratic stronghold of Wyandotte County, siphoning off its northern half to add to the 2nd District, which snakes its way from eastern Kansas’ northern border to its southern border, and is currently represented by Republican Derek Schmidt.
“To make (the 3rd District) competitive without putting Congressman Schmidt at too much risk, they’d probably have to make District 1 reach over and bite more out of the metro KC/Overland Park area,” Wang said.
The 1st District, represented by Republican Tracey Mann, encompasses all of western Kansas and a significant portion of the state’s central region, extending eastward to Jefferson County.
Davids has won each of her last three elections by at least 10 percentage points. The last two contests used district boundaries drawn by Republican lawmakers in 2022 and upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court, which found the state constitution does not prohibit partisan redistricting.
Given Davids’ electoral strength, Wang said, a successful gerrymander would require “extreme” changes to Kansas’ congressional maps. Close to a third of Kansans would likely be placed in new districts, he said, and Republicans may have to divide Sedgwick County as well.
‘Fair representation’
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said redistricting now with a “clear partisan agenda “ and no new census data would be against Kansans’ best interests.
“I am increasingly concerned that elected Kansas officials, and those seeking that honor, are doing the bidding of D.C. politicians rather than representing their Kansas constituents. The current redistricting process, imperfect as it is, is designed to provide fair representation,” Kelly said in a statement.
“Our congressional districts have already been drawn with the intention of stripping Rep. Davids of her seat and reducing the competitiveness of the 2nd Congressional District,” Kelly added. “In order to create a map aligned with their unfair agenda, it is my understanding that Republican leadership would consider a map that would split Johnson County into two, if not three, congressional districts.”
Top GOP lawmakers would not say whether they are in the process of drafting new congressional maps or if they intend to initiate a special session for redistricting like the one currently underway in Missouri.
Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, did not respond to a request for comment. Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican who’s running for governor and previously said he supports redistricting, declined to comment through a spokesperson.
“I have no new information to share regarding redistricting,” said spokesperson Megan Stookey.
During the bitter 2022 fight over new congressional maps, Masterson said Republican lawmakers’ goal in pulling part of Wyandotte County out of Davids’ district was to maintain what he called “the core of the district” in Johnson County.
This story was originally published September 8, 2025 at 12:46 PM.
