Grading the 2026 Kansas Legislature: Governor candidates evaluate chaotic session
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Candidates' grades for the Legislature ranged from C- to F, with D the most common.
- GOP supermajorities approved a 4.4% lawmaker pay raise, limited state worker raises to 1%.
- Lawmakers overrode veto to limit restroom use and invalidate transgender Kansans’ IDs.
Final grades are posted, and the product that emerged from last week’s late-night cram session in Topeka barely earned the Kansas Legislature a passing mark in 2026.
That’s the prevailing opinion among Republican and Democratic candidates vying to become the Sunflower State’s next governor.
The Star asked candidates to grade the Legislature on its performance during a hectic and contentious 90-day session that wrapped on Saturday just after 1:30 a.m. The letter grades they provided ranged from C- to F, with D being the most common evaluation.
Former Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer awarded lawmakers an I for incomplete. “We need a competent conservative governor to make Kansas great again,” Colyer said in a statement.
Democratic state Sen. Ethan Corson gave the Legislature a D. “That is grading on a curve, frankly,” he said at a press conference on Monday.
“I would give the Republican supermajority a D for failing to get property tax relief across. I would give the Legislature a D for failing to address the crisis in special education funding,” Corson said. “I would give the Legislature a D for a budget that provides massive pay raises to lawmakers. We already got a ninety-four percent pay raise (in 2025).”
This year, GOP supermajorities in the Legislature voted to give lawmakers a 4.4% pay increase while limiting state employee raises to 1%. The House and Senate couldn’t reach an agreement on a constitutional amendment proposal designed to provide property tax relief.
Lawmakers overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto to enact a law policing who can use government-owned restrooms and invalidating driver’s licenses that reflect transgender Kansans’ identities. They also overrode a veto of a bill that will make it a crime to get too close to law enforcement officers who feel threatened or distracted.
Additionally, the Legislature established a sports authority to own the Kansas City Chiefs’ planned $3 billion stadium in Wyandotte County, passed a bell-to-bell school cell phone ban and took aim at high drug prices by approving new restrictions for pharmacy benefits managers, or PBMs, over the objection of House Speaker Dan Hawkins.
Legislative report card
The only candidate willing to defend the Legislature’s cumulative record was Senate President Ty Masterson, who didn’t provide a letter grade in his statement to The Star.
“The Kansas Legislature delivered real results this session, passing commonsense reforms to strengthen election integrity, support law enforcement, protect free speech on college campuses, and codify many aspects of President Trump’s America-First agenda,” Masterson said. “We also made it easier for young families to buy their first home, banned cell phones in the classroom, expanded school choice, and worked to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the government.”
He acknowledged that lawmakers came up short on promised property tax reform, bemoaning the fact that a contingent of House Republicans joined forces with Democrats to reject a last-ditch constitutional amendment proposal that achieved a supermajority in the Senate.
“The fight continues,” Masterson said. “Kansans deserve results.”
Democratic state Sen. Cindy Holscher said Kansans “deserve much better than the culture war antics of extremists like Ty Masterson.”
“This session proved that Kansas Republicans aren’t focused on lowering costs or helping working families get ahead,” Holscher said in a statement. “I’d give this session an F, but since we defeated the MAGA redistricting scheme, I’ll raise my grade to a D.”
A push for a special session in November to redraw Kansas’ congressional map and oust the lone Democrat in the D.C. delegation, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, fell through when Hawkins couldn’t collect enough signatures from his caucus.
Masterson wasn’t the only candidate who declined to assign the Legislature a letter grade.
“That’s childish and inappropriate,” said Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, a Republican who highlighted the PBM legislation she championed as part of the solution for addressing high prescription drug prices and protecting local pharmacies.
“What I can tell you is that we are all struggling with the cost of living,” Schmidt said in a statement. “That’s why I wrote and passed legislation this session to rein in PBMs, the pharmacy middlemen whose predatory practices have threatened the pocketbooks of Kansans, the livelihoods of local business and viability of rural communities.”
Republican entrepreneur Philip Sarnecki was less squeamish about grading lawmakers. He went with an F.
“The Republican supermajority failed to pass property tax relief. The Republican supermajority failed to lower income taxes. The Republican supermajority failed to cut the waste, fraud and abuse from the bloated state budget,” Sarnecki said.
Kansas candidates unimpressed with lawmakers
Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab did not respond to The Star’s request for comment. Neither did Marty Tuley, a personal trainer and the only other Democrat in the race.
The remaining Republican candidates had few positive evaluations for the 2026 Legislature. The most charitable among them came from former Wichita school board member Joy Eakins and conservative podcaster Doug Billings, who characterized GOP supermajorities’ performance as a “mixed bag” worthy of a C-.
Billings liked that lawmakers overrode Kelly’s veto of two bills imposing new abortion restrictions. But he said the protest petition legislation that could let a small fraction of voters automatically overhaul local budgets won’t provide the tax relief Kansans have asked for — even if Kelly allows it to become law.
“Even worse was the secret STAR bonds Chiefs stadium deal,” Billings said. “Senate President Ty Masterson and a small group of Republican leaders met privately with Democrat Gov. Kelly to approve $1.8 billion in taxpayer-backed bonds. No public vote. Kansans got all the risk; the Chiefs got the reward.”
The Kansas Department of Commerce and legislative leaders flatly deny that taxpayers are assuming risk related to the stadium project, which will be financed through future sales tax revenue in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
Eakins, a former Wichita school board member, praised GOP lawmakers for passing the anti-trans bill but said she wasn’t impressed with much else.
“They got some things accomplished, but the most common issues I hear from Kansans are frustration with rising property taxes and dissatisfaction with our education system,” Eakins said. “The Legislature fixed neither of these.”
Former Johnson County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara gave the Legislature a D-, citing the lack of action on property taxes and redistricting, as well as the Chiefs’ generous stadium deal.
“In leadership’s rush to end the session in order for the president of the Senate and the
speaker of the House could get back to raising money for their statewide campaign coffers, the people of Kansas were left with no property tax relief, funding services for illegals, K-12 education left in shambles and put us on notice that the Democrats and Republicans can find bipartisanship when working on tax giveaways, but not on other pressing needs,” O’Hara said.
Wichita entrepreneur Stacy Rogers gave lawmakers a D for their work this year. She criticized them for coming up short on tax relief and for giving state employees a smaller pay raise than they gave themselves.
“That disconnect speaks to a larger issue of priorities,” Rogers said. “Kansans expect their leaders to put people over politics, especially when it comes to easing financial burdens and making responsible fiscal decisions.”
Sharilyn Ray, a nonprofit CEO and social worker, is the only independent candidate who has filed a campaign committee with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office.
“I would give them an F,” she said. “Kansans are still drowning in property taxes. The parceling of our state unaddressed. The representatives that are supposed to speak for western Kansas betray them every day.
“While both parties wasted the public’s time with contrived ‘culture war’ debates, they were passing bills to sell us all down the river and give themselves a raise.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
