Lawrence residents, leaders prepare for political “irrelevance” in Kansas’ “Big First”

When Kansas lawmakers drew congressional lines 20 years ago they split Lawrence down Iowa Street, one of its most well traveled roads.

Residents east of Iowa voted in Kansas’ 3rd District with the Kansas City Metro, while residents to the west voted in the 2nd District, with Topeka. A federal court reunited the city after lawmakers failed to agree on a map in 2012.

For the past decade Lawrence played a key part in Kansas’ 2nd District. Though the eastern Kansas district stayed in Republican hands for the full decade it was viewed as a district where Democrats could put up a competitive race— they came within 1 point of flipping the seat in 2018.

Under the new congressional map, upheld Wednesday by the Kansas Supreme Court, Lawrence will now vote in the same district as Elkhart, a town of less than 2,000 people that sits near the Colorado and Oklahoma borders 427 miles southeast of Lawrence.

Lawrence will be the largest city in Kansas’ 1st Congressional District, commonly known as the “Big First” because it makes up more than half of the state’s geography. But the left-leaning college town will constitute a drop in the bucket for the sprawling rural district that has consistently elected Republicans by large margins since Bob Dole’s time in the U.S. House.

“On the worst day for Republicans, Lawrence will still be irrelevant in the new 1st District,” said Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas.

Lawrence officials and residents were angry and apprehensive about the move. Though Republican lawmakers insisted the map was drawn to place KU in the same district as Kansas State University— the state’s other largest university— people in Lawrence saw it as a blatant political power grab, a punishment for years of growth in a town that continues to vote blue.

“They have been worried about us for 20 years and their worry has led them to where they are today, ‘Let’s put them in an area where they will not have as much impact, lets put them in a position that will weaken their voting,’” said Kansas state Rep. Barbara Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat.

Jacqueline Dilley, a 65-year-old Lawrence resident, called the map “crap.”

“Western Kansas and Lawrence have nothing in common,” said Dilley, who has lived in Lawrence for 48 years. “It’s very bad for the whole state.”

What does this mean for Lawrence’s representation?

While the map essentially nullifies the political power of Lawrence voters, it brings a question of representation.

Kansas’ 1st District has historically been dominated by agricultural interests. Lawrence, home of a research university, is one of the largest cities in the state with a population above 94,000.

The result will be a balancing act for Rep. Tracey Mann, the incumbent Republican who would gain Lawrence residents as his constituents if he is re-elected.

Mann, a freshman who voted to overturn the 2020 election, is virtually assured re-election in the district that has never gone for a Democrat since it was redesigned as the western Kansas seat following the 1960 Census.

Mann declined to answer a question about the new congressional map in the Capitol Thursday.

But Lawrence leaders were concerned the city would be neglected in favor of the areas Mann has already represented.

“It’s going to create a situation where it will be challenging for Lawrence to be able to compete with all of the other interests that are in the first district,” Paul Davis, a Democrat who represented Lawrence in the Kansas House for 12 years, said.

Davis came within a percentage point of representing Lawrence in the U.S. House in 2018 under the previous congressional boundaries, but he lost to Republican Steve Watkins in one of the closest races in the nation that year. Watkins lasted one term after being ousted two years later in the GOP primary by Jake LaTurner, the 2nd District’s current congressman.

Shannon Portillo, a Douglas County commissioner who represents parts of Lawrence and rural parts of the county that remain in the 2nd Congressional District, said she worried it would become challenging to advocate for the county’s needs at the federal level.

“If we just think about how large that district is and how frequently we may be visited by our congressperson we’re less likely to get the kind of attention and feedback that we have gotten in the 2nd District,” she said.

Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, both former 1st District Representatives, said they were confident in Mann’s ability to balance the regions.

“I was within 25-30 miles of Lawrence, Douglas County to begin with in my congressional district. It’s a big district, it takes a lot of work. But it needed population,” said Moran, a Republican.

Marshall said he was surprised to see how the map was drawn and that it was upheld, but he said KU and K-State have similar interests and could use shared representation.

“I’m sure I have confidence Tracey Mann will figure it out,” said Marshall, a Republican.

Hugh Carter, vice president of external affairs for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, shared that perspective.

“We’re talking about a representative who’s been balancing (rural and urban interests) already with the presence of the higher ed institution at Kansas State,” Carter said. “We don’t have to agree on everything but at least they’ll each be able to be pulling for us in areas that we need.”

Carter told The Star in January that Lawrence was a bad fit for the district, but he said in an interview Thursday that it was “actually just fine.”

‘Good fighters’

While Democratic activists were frustrated by the decision and acknowledged it meant weakened political strength in Lawrence, they were still making plans.

Pat Wiler, chair of the Douglas County Democratic Party, said she looked forward to working with Democrats further west and seeking common lines between their communities.

“We’re good fighters and we’ll just keep doing the work we need to do,” she said.

And Democratic organizers in western Kansas see an opportunity.

“Lawrence now being in the 1st District offers a lot of new strategies and new paths for people who decide to run for the 1st District seat,” Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, lead coordinator of the southwest Kansas civic-engagement group New Frontiers Project, said.

Rangel-Lopez grew up in Dodge City in western Kansas, but he now lives in Lawrence while attending KU. Rangel-Lopez said he sees an opportunity for Democrats to devote real time and effort into expanding voter turnout in southwest Kansas, one of the most diverse areas of the state, in order to include it in a Democratic coalition with Lawrence, Fort Hays and Manhattan.

Southwest Kansas has large immigrant communities. Hispanic Kansans make up the majority of the population in Seward, Grant, Finney and Ford counties.

Throughout the Legislative process Democrats warned GOP lawmakers that drawing a map that would dilute Lawrence votes would discourage all political participation in the area. But Ballard, the state representative, said she hoped to see increased turnout in defiance of the map.

“If they didn’t like what we were doing before they may not like how we actually rally,” she said. “I don’t think we’re just going to sit back and say okay, you moved us here and nothing can happen.”

The Star’s Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.