Kansas GOP governor candidate blasts Legislature for not changing congressional map

Johnson County businessman Philip Sarnecki, a candidate for the Republican Party's nomination for governor, criticizes Senate President Ty Masterson, right, who is also seeking the GOP nomination for governor, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins for failing to draw new congressional maps that would make it difficult for Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids to hang onto her seat. Hawkins and Masterson are pictured during a Jan. 8, 2026, legislative hearing. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

By Tim Carpenter

Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Kansas governor candidate Philip Sarnecki took to social media to chastise fellow Republicans for lack of action by the Kansas Legislature to redraw boundaries of the four U.S. House districts to disadvantage the state’s lone Democratic incumbent in Congress.

Sarnecki, a candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination, accused the GOP supermajority in the House and Senate of deciding to “forfeit” its part in a national congressional redistricting fight between states controlled by Republicans and those dominated by Democrats.

“Kansas Republicans have a supermajority and can pick up a Republican House seat if they redraw the map,” said Sarnecki, founder of RPS Financial Group. “They are choosing not to. While Democrats redraw congressional maps to gain power across the country, Topeka is standing down.”

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican also running for governor, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, worked during October to secure support from two-thirds of members in both chambers to allow a special legislative session to redraw congressional boundaries. Enough Republican senators signed a petition to trigger a special session, but not enough GOP House members agreed with a plan to bring lawmakers together in November 2025.

The objective would have been a map that made it difficult for U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, to win reelection to her seat in November 2026. The tentative scheme was to split Johnson County between two or three congressional districts, which would disperse that county’s voters into GOP-majority districts.

Traditionally, Kansas congressional maps were redrawn every decade to reflect population shifts documented by the U.S. Census. The current map was passed in 2022 after the Kansas GOP pledged to keep Johnson County in a single district.

Masterson and Hawkins said they were interested in working on maps during the 2026 regular session of the Legislature. Masterson said it would be a “top priority,” while Hawkins said it was the “right thing to do.”

In two weeks of the current legislative session, there has been no substantive action in House or Senate committees to indicate progress on redistricting.

President Donald Trump and his allies, in a bid to cling to Republican control of the U.S. House, urged states to gerrymander enough Democrats out of Congress to prevail in the upcoming election cycle.

Sarnecki, who loaned his gubernatorial campaign $2 million in 2025, said he was convinced “weak GOP leaders in Kansas just chose to stand down and forfeit the fight for a Republican congressional map.”

“That’s not leadership and that is exactly why I’m running for governor. It’s time for a change,” Sarnecki said.

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said she was skeptical a new congressional map would be adopted by the House and Senate in the 2026 session. If a new map was passed, the governor could veto it. The House and Senate could override a veto with two-thirds majority votes in both chambers. If an override was successful, lawsuits challenging the new map would be likely.

This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.