TOPEKA, Kan. — A Kansas Senate committee approved a congressional map Thursday that reduces the voting power of minority voters in Kansas' 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses the Kansas City metro area.
Republican lawmakers on the Senate Redistricting committee voted to move the "Ad Astra" map, which combines the North half of Wyandotte County with Southeast Kansas and Lawrence with Western Kansas, to the Senate floor.
Lawmakers approved the plan with unusual speed, holding hearings and voting just two days after Senate President Ty Masterson proposed the map and a day after detailed data was made public.
The Senate is scheduled to debate the map Friday. It will need approval from the Kansas House and Governor Laura Kelly before becoming law.
The House committee, citing concerns that citizens hadn't had ample time to process the information, delayed their hearing on the bill to Friday.
The Senate vote followed testimony from numerous activists and community members criticizing the decision to split Wyandotte County. They called it a brazen attempt to dilute the votes of the predominantly Democratic county and weaken the voting power of minority residents in the state's only majority-minority county.
Three of Kansas' 105 counties are split in the "Ad Astra" map: Wyandotte, Douglas and Pawnee. Jackson County, Kansas, was split in a later amendment to the map to ensure that the Kickapoo Native American reservation was consolidated in one district.
"Two of the three divided counties are two of the three most racially diverse counties," said Sen. Ethan Corson, a Democrat.
Critics said the sole purpose of the Ad Astra map seems to be to move the largely Democratic, Black population of Kansas City, Kan., out of the state's 3rd Congressional District, reducing Rep. Sharice Davids' chance of reelection.
Davids, a Native American, is the only person of color in the four-member Kansas congressional delegation and the only openly LGBTQ member of Congress in state history.
The Ad Astra map splits Wyandotte County north and south along a line that would place most of Kansas City, Kansas' Black voters in District 2, a safe Republican represented in Congress by Rep. Jacob LaTurner.
Every 10 years lawmakers redraw congressional and legislative district lines to reflect population changes reported by the U.S. Census. According to 2020 census data, the entirety of Johnson and Wyandotte counties exceed the federally prescribed district size by 44,000 people.
"You can see that African American vote is on the north side of the boundary," said Sherri Grogan of the League of Women Voters. "This map also splits the Hispanic community of interest . . . specifically Armourdale is on the north side of the line and Argentine is south of the boundary."
Latinos are the largest population group in both neighborhoods; about 70% in Armourdale and 40% in Argentine.
In splitting Wyandotte County voters between two districts, county officials argued the map reduced the county's ability to receive attention from Washington.
"We've always found that, whether we are represented by a Republican or Democrat, when we are consolidated as a metropolitan area along with Johnson County in the third district, that member of Congress has always been attentive to Wyandotte County," said Mildred Edwards, KCK Mayor Tyrone Garner's chief of staff.
According to data from the non-partisan Legislative Research Department the 3rd District under the "Ad Astra" plan would go from 70.6% white to 77.4%. The Black population would drop from 8% to 4.8% of the district and the Latino population would drop from 14% to 10%.
In contrast, the 2nd District, which will pick up the Northern piece of Wyandotte County and lose Lawrence, becomes more diverse with an increase from 4.6% Black to 8.6% and 7.3% Latino to 12.9%.
Republicans on the committee dismissed arguments that racial differences invalidated the map, noting the increased representation in the 2nd District.
"If we're going to talk about communities of interest it's more important to talk about the types of things they're interested in and not race," Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Republican, said.
Michael Li, Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, called Kansas' plan "aggressive" and said it is likely to produce legal challenges.
"You're talking about the only county where whites are not the majority. Clearly the changes would impact the ability of communities of color to elect a candidate," Li said.
Legal challenges, Li said, may not be successful because, although racial gerrymandering is illegal, lawmakers can argue they made decisions based on politics rather than race.
The proposal cuts through Wyandotte County in a manner that residents and activists say doesn't make sense for the community.
Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, called the proposal "a joke"
"How is that keeping a community of interest together when you're drawing lines through people's backyards," Witt said.
Masterson said he chose to split Wyandotte County in half because he heard from speakers during redistricting town halls over the summer that they wanted Johnson County kept whole.
Much of the testimony at 3rd District hearings, however, focused on maintaining the core of the Kansas City metro area — not Johnson County itself.
"It seemed a cleaner line in Wyandotte," Masterson, an Andover Republican, said. "(Johnson and Wyandotte) really doesn't have a lot in common, I know they share resources."
In actuality, Masterson said, Northern Wyandotte County held more in common with Topeka in the 2nd District than it did with Southern Wyandotte County and Johnson County.
"It's basically suburbia versus real metro," Masterson said. "Diverse is relative and you're trying to help those communities to the degree you can."
Wyandotte County residents and officials disagreed.
Sens. David Haley and Pat Pettey, both from Kansas City, Kansas, said they saw no notable difference between the communities north and south of I-70.
"We are all one county, a vital county," Haley said. "There are some who may have different social, economic and even political leanings in Wyandotte County. Those lines that have been proposed evenly split, especially one of the most diverse in terms of race, counties to satisfy partisan gerrymandering."
Wyandotte County Commissioner Andrew Davis, whose district is split under the proposed map, said a divided Wyandotte County would be "disastrous," telling residents that, though their interests are aligned, their votes don't matter.
"Our votes only have power if they are together. And for residents of color it becomes even more important because our vote is already disenfranchised and we already have issues making sure that our vote counts; and that we get access to the ballot. So this would just be another barrier to getting federal representation for Wyandotte County," Davis said.
(The Star's Aaron Torres contributed to this report.)
