Kansas Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins has set the wheels in motion to call a special legislative session for mid-decade redistricting, a Republican lawmaker said on Tuesday.
At an annual retreat on Saturday, state Representative Mark Schreiber said party leaders distributed petitions to lawmakers to call a special session. Schreiber said some lawmakers could not attend the event in Wichita and that he did not sign the petition.
GOP leaders in the state House and Senate would need to rally nearly all members of their two-thirds supermajorities to call a special session without Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s approval — and override a likely veto of any plan they approve.
The petition marks the first concrete steps Kansas has taken toward an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting process, where states gerrymander congressional districts off-schedule from the census.
After Texas’ GOP-controlled state Legislature moved to redraw its congressional map to favor Republicans in the 2026 elections, a wave of other states — including Missouri — followed suit.
Command of the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives is at stake. Republican President Donald Trump has urged state lawmakers to secure a House GOP majority for the second half of his term.
Kansas’ last redistricting fight is still visible in the rearview mirror. Republican lawmakers overcame the governor’s veto and legal challenges to revise the map in 2022. The redraw was designed to weaken Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids’ hold on Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District.
Davids still won each of the following elections comfortably. But proponents of a Republican clean sweep in Kansas’ congressional delegation have at least one high-stakes option left: splitting up Johnson County into two or more congressional districts.
Davids told KCUR on Thursday that splitting up the state’s most populous and economically productive county would sever community relationships and lead to worse county services.
“This is such a clear political power grab,” she said.
GOP lawmakers ambivalent
In an email to the Kansas News Service, Republican state Senate President Ty Masterson said he would support redistricting “as a part of the bigger battle for the heart and soul of the country.”
Masterson is one of several GOP candidates running for Kansas governor in 2026 who publicly back redistricting. An endorsement by President Trump would boost any one of their campaigns.
But most Republican state lawmakers have been slow to come out for or against redistricting — especially those whose districts overlap with Johnson County.
Republican state Senator Mike Thompson in Shawnee said he wants to hear all of the arguments before he makes a decision.
“It does put us here in the Johnson County area right in the hot spot, obviously,” he said in an interview. “I want to be able to defend my position.”
Thompson said he was sympathetic to the ideas that Davids did not represent “Kansas values,” and that some Democratic-led states have gerrymandered maps to favor their party.
On the other hand, Thompson said, Republicans already redrew the districts well three years ago.
“We'll take a look at the maps and see what makes sense,” he said.
At Saturday’s retreat, Schreiber said the special session petition was presented as an option, not a requirement. He said he does not support redrawing the map for partisan aims.
“To me that’s not the purpose of redistricting. It’s not used as a political tool. It’s to adjust for population changes,” he said.
Schreiber has stood out in the past as a GOP lawmaker who is willing to break with his party, such as on last year’s bill banning gender-affirming care for minors.
Multiple lawmakers told the Kansas News Service they expect redistricting to come up when Kansas Republicans visit the White House in October. Masterson has said he wants to call the special session in early November.
Zane Irwin reports on politics, campaigns and elections for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zaneirwin@kcur.org.
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