General Election Report: GOP Maintains Legislative Supermajority

Republicans had a very good election night in Kansas.  While many were predicting a shift away from the current supermajority for Republicans in both the Kansas Senate and House, the voters had a different result in mind as Republicans increased their supermajority in both chambers. The Kansas House of Representatives will increase from 85 to 88 Republicans while the Kansas Senate will go from 29 to 31 Republicans in the majority.  A supermajority (over 2/3) requires the majority to have 84 and 27 members, respectively, in each chamber.  Maintaining a supermajority was a critical goal of Republican leadership so that they will have the required votes needed to override any veto issued by Democrat Governor Laura Kelly.

Former Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R) beat former Congresswoman Nancy Boyda (D) in the open Third Congressional District race. That seat opened after incumbent Congressman Jake LaTurner (R) opted not to seek reelection. Incumbents Congressman Tracey Mann, Congresswoman Sharice Davids and Congressman Ron Estes all retained their respective congressional seats.

 

Federal Results in Kansas

U.S. House of Representatives 1

D-Paul Buskirk                         89,361                       30%

R-Tracey Mann                       204,351                      70%

 

U.S. House of Representatives 2

D-Nancy Boyda                      112,458                      38%

R-Derek Schmidt                   168,788                      57%

L-John Hauer                            13,703                         5%

 

U.S. House of Representatives 3

D-Sharice Davids                   201,921                      53%

R-Pransanth Reddy               162,321                      43%

L-Steve Roberts                       15,115                         4%

 

U.S. House of Representatives 4

D-Esau Freeman                    101,893                      35%

R-Ron Estes                            191,663                      65%

The full list of General Election results can be found here:

https://ent.sos.ks.gov/kssos_ent.html

 

On Monday, Dec. 2, both the Senate and House held leadership elections for the top posts in each chamber.  Ty Masterson maintained his position as the Senate president. Tim Shallenburger will become the Senate vice president and Chase Blasi was elected as majority leader. Caryn Tyson will be the assistant majority leader while Rick Kloos will continue as the majority whip.

Dinah Sykes was re-elected as the minority leader, Oletha Faust-Goudeau was re-elected as the assistant minority leader, and Cindy Holscher was elected as minority whip.

In the House Chamber, most of the Republican leadership positions remained the same.  Dan Hawkins will continue as Speaker of the House, Blake Carpenter as Speaker Pro Team, and Chris Croft as Majority Leader. Nick Hoheisel was elected as the House majority whip.

In a contested race, Brandon Woodard will become the House minority leader.  Mike Amyx was elected as the assistant minority leader and Jo Ella-Hoye was elected as minority whip.

Committee chairs and committee assignments will be determined in the coming weeks, and we will continue to keep you updated. While we don’t anticipate a change in the House insurance committee, the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee will have different leadership.