Kansas elections 2026

With the new Kansas legislative session starting on January 12, lawmakers could tackle bills pertaining to budget cuts, taxes, school reform and more before election campaigns start in the summer.

The Kansas City Chiefs' planned move across the state line marked an unusually bipartisan success for Kansas elected leaders. In most other ways, state politics in 2025 were marked by Republican wins and Democratic frustrations.

Democratic political outsiders are vying to unseat Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall — and end nearly a century of Republican control of the state’s U.S. Senate seats.

A Kansas judge sided with Attorney General Kris Kobach that state law does not allow the quarter-cent public safety sales tax to be extended for the uses Johnson County commissioners wanted. The county will formally withdraw their resolution to put the question on the March ballot.

Statehouse Republicans already redrew Democrat Sharice Davids' district in 2022. They may try again, joining the national gerrymandering battle over the U.S. House of Representatives.

Legal experts say President Trump lacks the constitutional authority to stop states from offering mail ballots. Both Missouri and Kansas currently allow absentee voting by mail, but Kansas Republican lawmakers recently made it harder by eliminating a three-day grace period.

The field is growing more crowded as Republicans and Democrats line up to seek the Kansas governor's office.

Colyer officially announced his run for office at a rally on Thursday in Wichita. He previously served as governor for one year in 2018, following the resignation of former Gov. Sam Brownback, but then lost in the GOP primary.

The Great Bend, Kansas, native is currently serving his second term as the state's top election official. If elected in 2026, Schwab said he would work to lower property taxes and help rural communities that are falling behind.