Overall, 41 candidates for the House, which amounts to nearly one-third of the chamber’s 125 seats, immediately won their 2024 campaigns because none attracted an opponent. Twenty-five Republicans and 16 Democrats were among lucky victors on filing deadline day. There also were five senators who didn’t draw a primary or general election opponent, and could only be defeated by a write-in or third party candidate.
Nine state representatives decided to leave the House to seek promotions to the Senate, and several former state legislators filed in an attempt to return to the Capitol.
Democrats fielded candidates in 92 of 125 House races, and placed a Democratic candidate in every House seat — except one — that was won by Gov. Laura Kelly in 2022. That fell in line with a quest of Democrats to break the Republican’s two-thirds majority in the House, which has made it easier for the GOP to override vetoes by the Democratic governor. Kelly and other organizations have set up political-action committees for the purpose of ending the GOP supermajority in the House.
House Minority Leader Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat running for the Kansas Senate, said Democratic candidates also were motivated by GOP lawmakers intent on diminishing abortion rights in Kansas. He said that GOP agenda existed despite rejection by Kansas voters in 2022 of a state constitutional amendment designed to reverse a court decision declaring the right to abortion was embedded in the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
“It is no accident that so many women filed this year. Women are sick and tired of being silenced, and they’re not holding back. Our candidates reflect Kansans. They’re hard working, humble and diverse,” Miller said.
