Davids can breathe easy, at least for now, with GOP redistricting delay | Opinion
There are no permanent victories — or losses — in politics.
That’s the thing to keep in mind now that Kansas Republicans have given up (for now) on their dreams of stealing Sharice Davids’ seat in Congress. State House Speaker Dan Hawkins on Tuesday admitted Tuesday he wasn’t able to gather enough signatures from his members to force a special gerrymandering session of the Kansas Legislature.
Honestly, it’s fantastic news.
But it’s also only a reprieve. Because two months from now, legislators will gather in Topeka anyway for their annual regular session, and you can be sure Republicans will make another attempt at that point.
Senate President Ty Masterson — a GOP candidate for governor — promised as much on Tuesday.
Kansas voters “expect their leaders to keep fighting for the America First agenda,” he said in a statement posted to X. Republicans in the Legislature are “not backing down, and we’re not sitting out of this fight.”
We should believe him.
Why the GOP might win this one
Here’s the thing: A delay of two months might actually be beneficial to Republicans.
Davids, after all, had threatened to run for the U.S. Senate against Roger Marshall next year if Republicans carve up her district to give their party an advantage.
It’s clear she was serious. Politico reported this week that Davids met with Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California — a former House member — “to talk through the logistics of a Senate campaign and garner advice from a lawmaker who’s transitioned from the lower chamber.”
Schiff, incidentally, is the No. 2 guy on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which recruits candidates and raises money to help them run. That means Davids’ talk of challenging Marshall was anything but idle.
Marshall would probably win that battle. Kansas Republicans always win Senate races. But Davids could probably give him a run for his money, enough to make life a little bit difficult for the national GOP as it figures out how to distribute its resources in 2026.
A delay in the redistricting fight, though, means that the 2026 campaign could already be underway by the time Davids finds out her fate — and the fate of Johnson County voters who would be split up in any redistricting scheme. It would be too late to mount a credible run by then.
Wait a little bit, a few months, and Kansas Republicans might be able to take her seat while fending off the strongest challenger to Marshall.
Election night: Bad for Trump
That’s why it’s wise to never get too happy or too sad about victories and losses in politics. Things can always change. They probably will.
That’s also the reason that the whole idea of gerrymandering kind of stinks. It’s a bid by political parties to make sure that even if circumstances change — even if the mood of the voters changes — they will always have the power.
Can you think of anything more anti-democratic?
Perhaps by coincidence, Hawkins made his announcement on Election Day across much of America. Democrats won back the governor’s office in Virginia and kept it in New Jersey despite a competitive race there. It might be a sign that Donald Trump — who is putting the economy at risk and whose polls are as bad as they have ever been — is making his party vulnerable to losing seats in Congress next year.
The voters are changing their minds about Trump and his party. Masterson, Hawkins and their pro-gerrymandering colleagues don’t want that to matter. They want to keep their power.
Kansas Republicans lost on Tuesday. Gerrymandering won’t happen for now. But they’ll be back. Kansans who care about democracy should be ready for them.