Less than half Kansas voters are GOP. Ty Masterson still wants all the power | Opinion
Here’s an unexpected bit of math: Republicans make up less than half the Kansas electorate.
It’s true.
According to the Kansas Secretary of State’s office, there are — as of September 2025 — 1,999,629 registered voters in the Sunflower State.
There are just 898,429 registered Republicans among them. That’s just under 45%
Admittedly, there are lots more GOP voters than Democrats in these parts. There are just 497,801 registered Democrats in Kansas — a tick under 25% of the electorate
Unfortunately for Democrats, there are even more unaffiliated folks in Kansas: 573,048 of voters — a bit more than 28% — are what we often call “independent” voters.
After that, you have a few thousand other voters belonging to a hodgepodge of parties: Libertarians, No Labels and United Kansas. Enough to tip the balance in a race here or there, but not enough to win a major office on their own.
The point here is this: Kansas is famously a red state. And with good reason. The GOP wins an awful lot of elections around here.
Makes sense. They’re the biggest party, numerically.
But also: Most of us who do the work of voting in this state don’t actually want to be identified as Republican.
‘Redistricting is essential’
Unsurprisingly, those numbers aren’t much cause for humility among Kansas Republicans. They already have most of the power in the state, but they really want every last drop of it.
Which brings us to Ty Masterson — the Andover Republican who is president of the Kansas Senate and one of a gazillion GOP candidates for governor. He is pushing for a special session of the Kansas Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map and steal the seat now held by Rep. Sharice Davids, the Democrat who represents the 3rd District.
“I believe the battle for the heart and soul of this country is real, and this issue is critical to shaping our state’s political future,” Masterson said in a campaign newsletter to supporters on Tuesday evening.
“Redistricting is essential to ensure Kansas’ congressional map reflects the people of our state,” he added, “supporting President Trump’s agenda with a Republican Congress.”
“Reflects the people of our state,” huh?
Republicans have a hammerlock on three of the state’s four congressional seats. If the map were drawn to truly “reflect the people of our state” — remember, GOP voters are less than half the electorate — that number would be cut to two.
And that’s being a little bit generous.
Gerrymandering: Greedy and undemocratic
In a state where one-quarter of the electorate is registered Democrat, you might expect that one of the four congressional representatives would also be a Democrat.
That’s just math.
And would you look here: That’s exactly how the Kansas equation works out!
Davids is the only Democrat in the Sunflower State congressional delegation, remember. (Maybe not for long. If redistricting goes through, she might challenge Roger Marshall for his seat in the U.S. Senate.)
It sure looks like Kansas’ current map actually does reflect the people of the state.
Redrawing the maps so that Republicans control all four congressional seats would actually work against Masterson’s stated goal, on the other hand. Which makes you think that “reflecting the people of this state” isn’t really what he wants to accomplish.
Like I said: Kansas Republicans already have most of the power. They simply want all of it.
And that’s kind of understandable. You just wish that politicians like Masterson didn’t have the nerve to pretend like gerrymandering is an act of principle.
In reality, remapping Davids’ seat to give it to the GOP would be a greedy and undemocratic act on the part of the Kansas Legislature. Republicans are going to try to do it anyway because they can.
The will of the people? That’s got nothing to do with it.
