In Johnson County, Democratic incumbents hold on and add more seats in Kansas House
Dennis Miller wasn’t exactly optimistic about the odds in his race to unseat a sitting Republican in the Kansas House of Representatives.
“This particular district has been a Republican district forever. I knew it was going to be a difficult race,” he said late Tuesday evening.
But Miller appears to have upset incumbent Charlotte Esau for the District 14 seat, which represents portions of Lenexa, Olathe and Shawnee. Unofficial election results show Miller won 51% of the vote, though his current margin is fewer than 200 votes.
It was just one of the upsides for Democrats in Johnson County, who on Tuesday protected Kansas House incumbencies while also picking up two seats, according to unofficial election results.
Miller, who is retired from a full-time position in the Air Force Reserve, credited the party’s focus on reproductive rights and Medicaid expansion.
“In my opinion, we had a pretty good message for the people,” he said.
The largest and wealthiest county in Kansas continues to show signs of turning away from its longstanding history as a predictable Republican stronghold. In 2020, President Joe Biden won Johnson County by 8 percentage points — a result that would have been unthinkable a decade prior. And Johnson County voters in August overwhelmingly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have removed abortion rights from the state constitution, defeating that measure 31% to 69%.
Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat, said Tuesday’s election results are more evidence of Johnson County’s further alienation from the GOP.
“The Republican Party did everything that they could to purge any moderate Republicans from Johnson County,” she said. “They got rid of them. But you know who they didn’t get rid of? They didn’t get rid of the sensible, moderate voters. And you know what, Democrats in Johnson County understand what the people need.”
Clayton, who switched from the Republican Party following the 2018 election, won her reelection bid on Tuesday, besting her Republican challenger Nicholas Reddell by 24 percentage points, according to unofficial results.
Of 20 contested House races, Democrats appear to have won 11 races — a bright outcome for local Democrats given national expectations of widespread midterm losses.
“We picked up two open seats,” Clayton said, “and took out an incumbent and managed to hold all of our incumbents who faced some horrific negative campaigning.”
In Wyandotte County, Democrats held all but one of the six contested races for the Kansas House.
Republican Mike Thompson beat Democrat Bill Hutton in the 33rd District race. That seat has long been held by Democrat Tom Buroughs, who did not run for reelection.
Thompson will be the only Republican in the House to represent the Democratic stronghold of Kansas City, Kansas.
Incumbent Democrats Susan Ruiz and Valdenia Winn won their reelection campaigns by wide margins. And newcomers Lynn Melton, Melissa Oropeza and Marvin Robinson all won by double-digit margins.
The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed to this story.
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 12:08 AM.
