Kansas Democrats were feeling optimistic they would finally gain enough seats in the Kansas House and Senate to block the Republicans’ ability to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.
As governor, Kelly has the power to veto legislation she and Democrats find unfavorable, but Republicans can override her veto with a two-thirds majority vote. So, it has long been the Democrats’ goal to gain enough seats in both the House and Senate to get the number of Republicans below two-thirds, referred to as a “supermajority.”
To fend off the supermajority, Democrats needed to gain three seats in the Senate and two seats in the House.
While some close races make it impossible to finalize the Democrats’ net gains or losses, they didn’t make their goal. In fact, with Republicans turning out in large numbers to help reelect Donald Trump, Democrats suffered a “Red” attack on the ballot.
Kelly, in her second term as governor, created a $2 million PAC and endorsed candidates with potential of flipping House and Senate seats, and the Democratic National Committee invested $660,000 in Kansas to try to break the GOP supermajorities.
African Americans whose races the Democrats factored in as potential gains were Stacey Knoell and Vanessa Vaughn West in Johnson County. West lost her race for the District 39 House seat by less than 500 votes. While not as close, Knoell lost her race for the Kansas Senate District 23 seat by a margin of 53% to 47%.