The Perfect District

There has been a significant amount of state and national news stories about redrawing United States Congressional Districts. Kansas has four Congressional Districts, two of which are primarily urban, and two which are mainly rural in their demographics. An explanation of the thoughts that are going into the decision to redistrict or not is important for voters to know.

The United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 4 gives the authority to determine Congressional Districts to the state legislatures. All states generally redraw their districts every 10 years after the national census is released.  However, in most states there is no prohibition against redrawing districts more often than that. Kansas is included in this group.

The way that a district is drawn can have an impact on the results of the ensuing election. Some boundaries are more favorable to one party or the other. In several states there have been lawsuits to require redistricting based on a perceived violation of either state or federal law. For instance, a district that is specifically designed to circumvent state or federal law might require the state to redraw the district. After the 2020 census twenty-two lawsuits were filed to compel states to change boundaries. In most cases those lawsuits have been settled.  However, Wisconsin and Ohio continue to work on settling litigation.

This summer, the Texas Legislature decided to change the congressional districts in Texas to favor more Republican representation in Congress. Democrats in several states including California responded with redistricting attempts of their own to favor Democrats. In total, fourteen states have looked at the possibility of redrawing lines. These states include both Democrat and Republican controlled states and currently have 232 House members (112 Republicans and 120 Democrats) out of the 435 Representatives. The discussion surrounding redistricting has encompassed most of the country and includes Kansas.

Leading Republicans in Kansas have advocated for redrawing our Congressional seat boundaries in response to California attempting to eliminate Republican leaning districts. Our Governor, who is a Democrat, is strongly supportive of California redistricting, but has been critical of attempts to do the same in the Sunflower State. While some states require a Constitutional amendment to redistrict on demand, Kansas does not. Neither federal nor state law prevents the legislature from changing the districts with a majority vote of both legislative bodies. It is likely in Kansas that the partisan Governor would veto any attempts to weaken the Democrat stronghold of District 3.

There are two competing ideas that govern how a district should be drawn. The first is that groups of people who are similar should be grouped together in a district. This idea which has been used in Kansas would favor having highly urban districts and then separate rural districts. The second idea is that each district should reflect a microcosm of the state as a whole. The second idea would include a fair representation of all people groups in each district which would require representatives to appeal to an accurate subset of the population as a whole.

Some of you have contacted me regarding which of the two ideas make sense to you. I continue to welcome emails and letters letting me know the preferences you have on the way Kansas should be represented in the United States Congress.