TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly expressed optimism a group of quality Democratic candidates and influence of her $2 million political action committee would break in the Nov. 5 election the partisan supermajorities held by Republicans in the both the House and Senate.
Democrats’ priority in this election cycle is picking up a total of five seats in the Legislature to end the GOP’s two-thirds advantage. The GOP supermajorities have been a thorn in the Democratic governor’s side whether the Legislature was voting on individual bills or attempted overrides of Kelly’s vetoes.
“I do think that we will get the two seats that we need in the House and the three that we need in the Senate. Would I like more? Sure, yeah,” Kelly said for the Kansas Reflector podcast.
“I do know that we have really superb candidates running in a lot of our targeted races. Many of them are based in Johnson County, and I think the road to breaking the supermajority will go through Johnson County,” the governor said.
The House is divided among 85 Republicans and 40 Democrats. A two-thirds majority in the House equals 84, meaning Democrats must snatch two seats from Republicans to move the partisan split below the supermajority threshold. Republicans have led the House with a supermajority since 2010.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said the Election Day clash over the supermajority was nothing new. He anticipated the GOP would hold onto their House seats and possibly knock off a couple Democrats to pad their margin heading into the 2025 legislative session.
Over in the Senate, there are 29 Republicans and 11 Democrats. A two-thirds majority would be 27, so Democrats set their sights on claiming three seats. Republicans have operated with a Senate supermajority since the election of 1992.
Kelly, who served in the Kansas Senate and is halfway through her second term as governor, said outcome of 2024 legislative elections would color her final two years in office.
“We’ve really been able to get a whole lot of things done, but there are other things that we’ve got to get done if Kansas is going to continue to move forward,” Kelly said. “If we don’t break the supermajority, then the Legislature is going to continue to pass bad bills that impact our ability in Kansas to really prosper and grow.”
The large numerical advantage of Republicans has blocked bills tied to medicinal marijuana and expansion of eligibility for Medicaid health benefits, she said.
She said if voters perpetuated GOP supermajorities in Kansas it would embolden Republicans to push for more restrictions on abortion, resume attacks on the LGBTQ community and advance questionable tax reform.
“I need Democrats in those seats now to help sustain vetoes on bad legislation,” Kelly said. “That way we’re more attractive for our own people to stay here … instead of leaving the state and much more attractive to businesses coming in.”
Kelly said the campaign work of Democrats in this election cycle was heightened because a cadre of Republican legislators who occasionally crossed party lines to sustain her vetoes decided not to seek reelection.
“If we break the supermajority, then it will require leadership in both the House and the Senate to work with us and with the Democrat caucus in their respective chambers,” Kelly said.
