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House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, joins Gov. Laura Kelly at a Sept. 23, 2025, rally that affirmed Democrats would try again in 2026 to break the Republican supermajority in the Kansas House. Democrats made it a top priority in 2024, but lost seats to Republicans in the House. (Tim Carpenter\/Kansas Reflector)<\/p>\n
TOPEKA \u2014 House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard says there\u2019s no way to sugarcoat results of the November 2024 election that deepened the Republican supermajority in the Kansas House.<\/p>\n
The idea, from the perspective of Democrats, was to recruit viable candidates to compete in winnable districts so the 85-40 GOP advantage would be reduced by at least two. That would have made it more difficult for House GOP leadership to secure 84 votes to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly or to place constitutional amendments on statewide ballots.<\/p>\n
The opposite occurred in the 2024 general election as Republicans expanded their grip on the House by winning an 88-37 majority. Likewise, Republicans expanded the partisan edge in the Senate to 31-9 by picking up two seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest. Last November was tough. We lost seats. We lost ground,\u201d said Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat.<\/p>\n
He told more than 200 people at a Democratic Party event Tuesday night in Johnson County that House Democrats were outmuscled daily at the Capitol during the 2025 legislative session. The experience inspired a 14-city tour that included Dodge City, Pittsburg, Newton, Emporia, Hays, Topeka, Wichita and Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The objective, Woodard said, was to open conversations with all sorts of voters about what was occurring in Topeka as well as Washington, D.C. He said the tour was also about finding allies to help flip at least five GOP House seats and retain all 37 Democrat seats in November 2026, which would be enough to break Republican Party\u2019s two-thirds supermajority in the House.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hopeful about what\u2019s ahead with us in 2026,\u201d Woodard said. \u201cNot only to win back seats and break the supermajority, but to end the extreme right madness being funneled into Kansas.\u201d<\/p>\n
On election night in November 2024, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach declared that wider GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate should be used to unlock the two-thirds majorities necessary to place an amendment to the Kansas Constitution on the ballot to enable direct election of justices to the Kansas Supreme Court. That\u2019s exactly what happened during the 2025 session of the Legislature. The question will be decided by voters on the August 2026 primary ballot.<\/p>\n
Senate President Ty Masterson, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins relied on their GOP supermajorities to push back against dozens of vetoes by Kelly in the 2025 session. They appear ready to do the same in the 2026 session \u2014 Kelly\u2019s last as governor.<\/p>\n
Kelly, who spoke to the Johnson County audience with Woodard, deployed a $2 million political action committee in an effort to turn the tide in favor of Democrats in legislative races in 2024.<\/p>\n
She said that with the 40-member Senate not up for reelection until 2028, legislative investments next year could target the 125 House seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some opportunities for us to pick up some more Democrats,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said voters should respond to work of Democrats to fund K-12 public schools, eliminate the state sales tax on groceries and bring $22 billion in new private sector investments to Kansas since 2019.<\/p>\n