Kansas Republicans have an even tighter grip on state politics after dominating local legislative elections.

Republicans expanded their supermajority in the state Legislature in Tuesday’s election. Democrats failed to unseat Republicans in suburban Kansas City and lost key elections in Hutchinson, Leavenworth and Manhattan.

Democrats viewed this cycle as their best chance yet to end a power arrangement that allows Republican lawmakers to pass bills, amendments and budget items without a single vote from the other side.

Now Republicans can continue to crush Democrats on key issues.

That could mean limiting access to health care for transgender people, another attempt at a flat tax package and property tax cuts in the 2025 legislative session.

Republican House Majority Leader Chris Croft said the vote shows Kansans support GOP priorities.

“They put their trust in us and showed that they believed in us and wanted us to play a role and get things done,” Croft said.

With an enhanced supermajority, Croft said the party would focus on economic aid.

“People are suffering there,” he said. “People are not filling their (grocery) carts. They struggle to put food on the table.

Croft said it was too early to comment on other policies that Republicans have hinted at in the past, like lowering the corporate tax rate or changing how Justices on the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas are named.

Wendy Bingesser, a GOP leader in the area that contained many battleground races, said her party’s messages on public safety, inflation and property taxes resonated with influential voters in competitive constituencies.

“The Legislature’s number one priority will be fixing the state’s broken property tax system,” she said in a text message.

Kansas Republicans have held the vast majority for more than a decade and have overridden Kelly’s veto 15 times in the past two years. This includes laws demanding of doctors has interview patients seeking abortion on their reasons, prohibiting transgender athletes women’s and women’s sports, increasing penalties for injuring police dogs and limiting access to food stamps.

But it has been difficult at times to get every one of the more than 100 Republicans to fall in line. These veto fights give Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly more power in the Kansas Legislature, even though Democrats do not control the state House or Senate and have limited influence in committees.

Now, Republicans’ increased numbers will allow them to reach the two-thirds majority needed for an override, even if a handful of party members oppose it.

While the supermajority battle in Kansas is nothing new, this election cycle has seen higher than normal levels of spending from both parties. A political action committee created by Kelly has raised nearly $2 million in just over a year. His goal was to break the supermajority and tip the scales in certain Democratic primaries.

Democrats were expected to gain two seats in the House or three in the Senate. Instead, unofficial results of Kansas Secretary of State suggest they lost three seats in the House and two in the Senate.

The outcome of the state legislative election became clear Tuesday night as Democrats failed to eke out enough victories in the state’s battleground districts.

Small business owner Jeff Klemp appears to have ousted Jeff Pittman, an incumbent Democratic senator from Leavenworth. And in Manhattan, Senate Democrat Usha Reddi lost her seat to former school district Superintendent Brad Starnes.

Chatting with colleagues and checking her phone for updates at a Democratic watch party in Overland Park, Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes said she was disappointed that initial enthusiasm for vice -President Kamala Harris doesn’t seem to be holding up in local elections.

“That’s what we were a little afraid of, trying to make sure people voted all the way down the ballot,” she said.

Will Lawrence, Kelly’s chief of staff, said the governor’s veto must always be respected.

Kelly has a history of convincing moderate Republicans to rebel against the party’s leadership.

THE flat tax planconservatives’ top priority, died because several Republicans embraced Kelly’s tax plan. Republican lawmakers also resisted party leadership when conservatives tried to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

It’s unclear how House and Senate leaders would have negotiated with Democrats if the supermajority had been broken. Breaking with the vast majority doesn’t guarantee passage of bills like a Medicaid expansion, but it’s an issue Kelly has continued to champion.

Kelly’s other top priorities for this upcoming session are conserving water in the Ogallala Aquifer and creating more affordable child care. She wants to create a new state department dedicated to child care.

These are not inherently partisan issues, Lawrence said, and they can still be resolved even with a more conservative Statehouse.

In contrast, the fight over education funding is a partisan issue that could prove more complicated to negotiate given Republicans’ increased control of the Statehouse.

“They’ve had the vast majority this whole time,” Lawrence said. “We were able to maintain our vetoes significantly with Republican support. Now we may need to get a few more votes.

This story is a collaboration between the Kansas News Service and the tag.

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