Post Election Rundown

Post-Election Rundown

 As we write this, there is still no resolution to the presidential election with several states still counting or too close to call. So the presidential race is still undecided although all data points to an eventual victory for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Donald Trump has been threatening legal action, creating conspiracies where none exist, and alternating between demands to stop counting votes in states that are trending towards Biden and to finish counting votes in states where he hopes to make last minute gains. We trust that local election authorities across the country are working diligently to count every ballot and make sure the ultimate results are accurate results. They have plenty of experience with this so we all should just let them do their job in the certainty that all will eventually be settled. 

But while the presidential election would appear to be “sucking all the air out of the room” and off our news feeds, need we remind you that we also had state elections? 

Here in Kansas, all state Senate and House seats were up and, while we generally know what’s what, even in these races we can’t be certain of every outcome. This is not unusual. We remember a primary race one year that was decided with a coin toss when the candidates tied and another general election House race that was decided by one vote. And they say your vote doesn’t matter! We wonder who that one voter was! 

In a nutshell, here’s what we know:

Republicans held on to supermajorities in both the House and Senate – meaning, that Governor Laura Kelly may have more challenges to any vetoes she might make. Sustaining a veto will require some Republicans to support the Governor. 

The Republican majorities appear more conservative than they were in the last sessions since many moderate Republicans were defeated in primaries by conservatives. Leadership of both chambers will remain in extreme conservative control.

Democrats enter the Senate with the same number of seats they had last year – 11. Two Democratic seats were lost when Senator Anthony Hensley was defeated and when Democratic candidate Tobias Schlingensiepen came up short in his effort to hold on to the seat once held by Governor Kelly and vacated by Vic Miller who returned to the House. Offsetting these two losses were two wins that flipped Republican held seats to Democrats. Democratic Rep. Cindy Holscher won the Senate seat vacated by Republican Majority Leader Jim Denning while Democratic Rep. Jeff Pittman defeated Sen. Kevin Braun in his bid for re-election.

In the Kansas House, four Democrats came up short in their bid for re-election. Representatives Monica Murnan and Tim Hodge were both defeated in their bid to be re-elected. Also coming up short were Jennifer Day, recently appointed to take the place of Dave Benson who resigned when he moved out of his district, and Stephanie Yeager, appointed to finish the term of Brandon Whipple who was elected Mayor of Wichita in 2019. 

This would put the Democrats three seats down coming into the next session except that another three seats are still close enough that the outcome could change. Democrat Linda Featherston has won the race to replace Cindy Holscher by four votes; Democrat Jason Probst is holding on to his seat by only three votes. Both of these races might change as all provisional ballots are counted and they might be subject to a recount. The third close seat is that of Jennifer Day. She lost by only 11 votes so this race is still in play subject to counting provisional ballots and a recount.

So the House Democratic caucus is down by three and potentially down by six.

So what does this mean for education in 2021? Ron Ryckman Jr. has put his name in the running for an unprecedented third term as Kansas House Speaker and is joined by his team from 2020 – Dan Hawkins for Majority Leader and Blaine Finch for Speaker Pro-Tem. We can almost certainly be assured that the most extreme conservatives will hold all of the important committee chairmanships. Look for the committee reappointments of Kristey Williams to K-12 Budget and Steve Huebert to Education.

With the pandemic raging and based upon the recent history of conservative Republican attacks on public education, Kansas educators and their students may be in for a rocky ride for the next two years. So get ready to get engaged in legislator accountability. We’re going to need all hands on deck!