While We Were Sitting at Home Not Voting, Guess What Happened?

This month, Kansas held local elections and the turnout was disgraceful. 

Too many people still don’t grasp that local and state races really matter — they shape what happens nationally.

Over the last few decades, while we stayed home, Republicans showed up and voted in state and local elections. As a result, they’ve gained and held control of state legislatures across the country, including Kansas and Missouri. 

And, now, those same legislatures are executing Donald Trump’s agenda to erase Black political representation from Congress.

After the 2020 Census, Republicans used their statehouse power to redraw congressional maps. The stated purpose of redistricting is, after the census, to balance population across districts. But Republicans weaponized it — slicing up Democratic areas and merging them into Republican strongholds to lock in their advantage.

We saw it in Wyandotte County. In an attempt to turn the only Democratic congressional seat in Kansas, during redistricting, they split Kansas City, KS, in half. 

The heavily Black, heavily Democratic section was shoved into the heavily Republican District 2. Then, to make sure District 2 didn’t lean too Democratic, they carved out Lawrence — a liberal base — and dropped it into the sprawling, rural District 1.

That scheme failed. But Republicans are trying again — this time targeting Kansas City, MO, and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Black-represented congressional districts across the country.  

At Trump’s urging, GOP legislatures are considering breaking with tradition (and possibly the law) to redraw maps now — mid-decade — to secure more Republican seats in Congress before the next election.

And the people making those decisions? The same “unimportant” state lawmakers many ignored on their ballot — in Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and other GOP-controlled states.

Here’s the kicker: America isn’t as Republican as these legislatures make it look. In Kansas, only 45% of registered voters are Republican, but they hold 69% of the seats in the state legislature. In Missouri, Republicans make up 42% of registered voters, but Republican hold 62% of the seats in the state’s General Assembly. 

That gap exists because far too many of us aren’t even registered — and many who are don’t bother to vote in local and state races.

We’re in this mess, not because we didn’t vote in the national election, but because we didn’t understand the importance of state and local officials and failed to show up.

FYI: The same redistricting battle in Wichita is why we haven’t had a Black person on the Sedgwick County Commission in almost 30 years.  

Local and state elections matter. They are the front lines. And when we stay home, we surrender without a fight.