By Morgan Chilson and Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Kansas’ lone Democratic congresswoman is preparing legal strategies to fight Republican redistricting efforts in court, should the need arise.
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, whose 3rd District seat is the target of a proposed November special session in Kansas, told reporters Wednesday she will fight efforts by Republicans to shift voting districts.
The special session will only take place if 84 of the 88 House Republicans sign on, and legislators have indicated they are short a few votes.
“Instead of changing their policies, they’re changing the rules,” Davids said. “Let’s call this what it is. It’s cheating. Most Kansans might not know what gerrymandering is, but they do understand what cheating is, and they know when something isn’t fair.”
Davids said she will take steps should the redistricting occur.
“We’re absolutely gearing up and will be ready to fight this in court if they continue down this road and are able to get a redistricting or gerrymandering done,” she said.
When the Kansas Legislature changed district maps in 2022, also targeting Davids’ seat, the congresswoman said she challenged the changes in court. Although she didn’t win, the changes Republicans made in the Kansas City-area district did not unseat Davids. She won reelection that year by a wider margin than before, then won her fourth congressional term in 2024.
As a former MMA fighter, Davids said that whether she’s in the cage or the halls of Congress, she wants to win but she wants to do so “fair and square.”
“It’s not fair to Kansans to manipulate district boundaries just to give one political party more power, and it sure isn’t fair to Kansans to take marching orders from Washington extremists instead of listening to Kansans that you’re supposed to be serving,” she said.
“This is a blatant power grab,” Davids added.
A Republican contingent traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with President Donald Trump. Although Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said redistricting was not on the agenda, Davids believed it would be discussed.
“All of this is happening behind closed doors, which is one of the one of the more frustrating parts about this,” she said. “We know that the Republican legislators are coming out to the White House and are going to get their marching orders, but Kansans have yet to see what their plan is. I can’t tell you what the future steps look like.”
A photo posted on social media showed 34 Kansas House and Senate Republicans posing with thumbs up for a group photo behind a sign that read “White House State Leadership Conference.”
A separate photo showed a program agenda that included meetings with various Trump administration officials, including White House deputy chief of staff James Blair and White House Office of Political Affairs director Matt Brasseaux. The others were Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Kelly Loeffler of the Small Business Administration, and White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs director Alex Meyer.
Earlier this week, Johnson County community leaders spoke out against redistricting efforts at a rally in Mission.
To drive Davids out of office, a new map would have to fracture Johnson County into two or three districts.
“Johnson County is the economic engine of Kansas,” said Tiffany Stovall, CEO of Kansas Manufacturing Solutions. “Splitting up our region — which leads the state in economic power — threatens our business community. Our workforce, our community, our families are all interconnected. Dividing us just so politicians can hand-pick their voters is wrong.”
Laurel Burchfield, advocacy director of Mainstream Coalition, which helped organize the Tuesday night rally, said she hoped the event would signal community opposition to any plan to “rig the system.”
“Our elected officials’ job is to listen to us and try to help make life better for families,” Burchfield said. “But when districts are manipulated and gerrymandered to make elections less competitive, officials listen less to voters, and more to special interest groups.”
