Kansas is a Republican state by almost every measure that matters, and the question of whether Kansas is a Republican or Democratic state has a clear answer at the federal level and in the legislature. The state has voted Republican for president in every election since 1968, sends two Republicans to the U.S. Senate, holds three of four U.S. House seats for the GOP, and gives Republicans supermajorities in both chambers of its legislature. The one significant exception is the governor’s office, where Democrat Laura Kelly is serving her second term. That split produces a divided government at the state level even though the partisan tilt is otherwise lopsided.
Presidential Voting
The last Democrat to carry Kansas at the presidential level was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Every contest since has gone Republican, including all seven from 2000 through 2024, when Donald Trump won the state for the third consecutive cycle.1Ballotpedia. Presidential Voting Trends in Kansas Since 1900, roughly 84 percent of Kansas’s presidential votes have gone Republican and about 16 percent Democratic.
Recent margins have not been close. Trump won Kansas by about 15 points in both 2020 and 2024, which places the state well outside the competitive tier rather than in the battleground category.
The Congressional Delegation
Both U.S. Senators from Kansas are Republicans. Jerry Moran has served since 2011, and Roger Marshall joined him in 2021. The last Democrat to win a Kansas Senate race was George McGill in 1932, giving the state one of the longest single-party Senate streaks in the country.2U.S. Senate. Kansas Senators
Three of Kansas’s four U.S. House seats are held by Republicans: Tracey Mann in the 1st District, Derek Schmidt in the 2nd District, and Ron Estes in the 4th District.3U.S. House of Representatives. Representative Tracey Mann4U.S. House of Representatives. About Representative Derek Schmidt5U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Representative Ron Estes The lone Democratic seat is the 3rd District, anchored by the Kansas City suburbs in Johnson and Wyandotte counties, represented by Sharice Davids.6U.S. House of Representatives. Representative Sharice Davids
A Divided State Government
Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, is serving her second term as the 48th governor of Kansas, a term that began in January 2023.7Kansas Office of the Governor. Governor Laura Kelly She won reelection in 2022 despite the state’s Republican lean.
The legislature runs the other way, and firmly. Republicans hold 31 of 40 seats in the Kansas Senate, a chamber they have controlled continuously since 1916.8Kansas State Legislature. Senate Roster In the 125-seat House, Republicans hold 88 seats to the Democrats’ 37 after picking up three seats in the 2024 elections.
Those numbers matter because Kansas requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override a gubernatorial veto: 27 in the Senate and 84 in the House. Republicans clear both thresholds, so a united caucus can override Governor Kelly. Overrides don’t happen on every vetoed bill, though. Moderate Republicans occasionally side with the governor, particularly on fiscal questions and education spending, which gives Kelly more practical leverage than the raw seat counts imply.
Voter Registration
Registration rolls show the Republican advantage but not as starkly as election results. As of December 2025, about 44.8 percent of registered Kansas voters are Republican, 24.7 percent are Democrats, and 28.9 percent are unaffiliated. The unaffiliated share has been growing, and in competitive statewide races those voters often decide the outcome.
Where the Label Doesn’t Predict the Result
In August 2022, Kansas voters were asked whether to amend the state constitution to remove protections for abortion rights, which would have cleared the way for the legislature to ban or restrict the procedure. The amendment failed by a wide margin: roughly 59 percent voted “No” and 41 percent voted “Yes,” in a state that would vote for Donald Trump by about 15 points a few months later. Turnout was unusually high for a primary.
The result showed that partisan labels don’t govern every issue in Kansas. A meaningful share of voters who back Republicans for president and the legislature do not hold uniformly conservative positions on every policy question, and moderate Republicans, independents, and low-propensity voters can reshape an off-cycle electorate.
The Rural-Urban Split
The partisan geography inside the state is sharp. The Kansas City suburbs in Johnson County and the areas around Wichita, Lawrence, and Topeka lean Democratic or are competitive. The rural stretches of western and central Kansas often vote Republican by 70 to 80 percent or more.
Population has been concentrating in the metros. Johnson County alone holds more people than many rural areas combined, and its suburbs have trended leftward over the past decade, which is what keeps the 3rd District competitive for Democrats and what allowed Laura Kelly to win the governorship twice. Rural Kansas still dominates statewide Republican primaries and delivers the margins that keep the state reliably red in most elections, with agriculture and energy shaping voter preferences on regulation, taxes, and trade.