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Legislative majorities are in play in several states


By JOHN HANNA and DAVID A. LIEB

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — After introducing herself at their front doors, Vanessa Vaughn West began her pitch to voters with a question: What issues are important to you? She heard frustration about rising local property taxes, a desire for smaller government and questions about affordable housing.

West is a Democrat making her second run for a Kansas House seat representing a western Kansas City neighborhood where Republicans have held sway since the construction of homes began in the late 1990s.

Despite that history, West’s race against Republican state Rep. Angela Stiens is on the national Democratic Party’s radar, as is the Kansas Legislature. Democrats need to gain just two seats in the 125-member House or three in the 40-member Senate to break a supermajority that has enabled Republicans to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes of measures restricting abortion providers and transgender rights.

A similar battle is playing out in North Carolina, where the flip of a single seat in either the House or Senate could cost Republicans a veto-proof majority that has repeatedly imposed its will over the objections of a Democratic governor. In Nevada, meanwhile, it’s Democrats who stand to gain a veto-proof majority over a Republican governor, if they can pick up just one more state Senate seat without losing one in the Assembly.

Nationwide, more than 5,800 state legislative seats in 44 states are up election this year in the background of higher profile contests for president, Congress and governor. Groups aligned with Democrats and Republicans are expected to pour a couple hundred million dollars into the state legislative battles, focusing most intensely on states where control of a chamber is in play: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

But they also are paying attention to some states where there is little doubt about which party will prevail, because there is still plenty at stake.

Vanessa Vaughn West, a Democratic candidate for the Kansas House, begins going door-to-door in the neighborhood around her home, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Shawnee, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Vanessa Vaughn West, a Democratic candidate for the Kansas House, begins going door-to-door in the neighborhood around her home, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Shawnee, Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna) 

The Associated Press identified 14 states where a swing of just three or fewer seats could determine whether a party holds a supermajority, meaning a margin so dominant that a party is able to enact laws despite a governor’s veto, convene special sessions or place constitutional amendments on the ballot without needing any support from lawmakers of an opposing party.

“Having a party in power is really important — the most import thing,” said Wesley Hussey, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento. But “having a supermajority can give you additional tools to enact policy.”

GOP districts in Kansas draw Democrats’ attention

In Kansas, Stiens was appointed to fill a House vacancy this spring in time to help override Kelly’s veto of a bill requiring abortion providers to ask patients why they want to end their pregnancies and submit that data to the state health department. The law isn’t being enforced amid legal challenges.



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