If Republicans in the Kansas legislature are successful in their attempt to gerrymander the state's congressional maps, the state's 3rd district congresswoman could be out of a job.
Rep. Sharice Davids is the only Democrat representing Kansas in Congress, so any gerrymandering would be specifically designed to pull her out of the U.S. House.
Kansas Republicans already succeeded in redrawing the map for that purpose earlier in the decade, and it was upheld as constitutional by the Kansas Supreme Court. That plan split up Wyandotte County into two districts and shifted Lawrence into a largely rural, GOP-dominated district.
But Davids managed to win reelection anyways.
Should Kansas Republicans try again, Davids believes it would result in Johnson County being represented by multiple members of Congress instead of one.
"It's actually so ludicrous to imagine splitting up Johnson County for so many reasons that it is hard to imagine," Davids said. "But, you know, I've seen drafts of hypotheticals where part of Johnson County would be in a district that goes all the way to the Colorado border."
Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican, has said that redrawing Kansas' congressional maps is necessary to "better reflect the will of most Kansans."
But Davids doesn't see it that way.
"I think (Masterson) is grasping at straws to find justification for something that is wrong. It is silencing the voices of Kansans," Davids said. "I think it's insulting to the people, particularly for our state Senate president, who specifically in the last redistricting — when they gerrymandered the state last time — promised not to break up Johnson County."
"The only way to accomplish what they have either been instructed by Donald Trump to do, or have promised Donald Trump they would do, the only way for them to do this is to break up Johnson County."
- U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, 3rd Congressional District of Kansas
