Kansas Politics & News
Kansas politics from The Daily Signal, featuring coverage of state legislation, education policy, fiscal conservatism, and the Sunflower State’s tradition of limited government principles.
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Why Kansas Conservatives Are Pushing Voters to Reshape the State’s Highest Court
It’s typically a no-drama affair. Every six years, Kansans vote whether to retain the state’s sitting Supreme Court justices. The question is the last item on the ballot. In Kansas history, voters never have voted out a justice on the state’s highest court. But this year, the judicial elections in Kansas—known as retention elections—are especially…Josh Siegel -
Votes of Thousands Who Haven’t Proven Citizenship Could ‘Swing’ Kansas Elections
With the presidential election two months away, a Kansas law requiring voters to show proof of citizenship remains in legal limbo. Late last month, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach asked a U.S. appeals court to reinstate a provision of a law requiring Kansans to prove their citizenship when registering to vote while obtaining driver's…Josh Siegel -
Kansas Required Work for Food Stamps. Here’s What Happened.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.” Over the past several years, the number of Americans on food stamps has soared. In particular, since 2009, the number of “able-bodied-adults” without dependents receiving food stamps more than…Rachel Sheffield -
Kansas Governor to End State Planned Parenthood Funding
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announced he intends to terminate state Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. Kansas will be joining seven other states that have taken action to prevent the nation’s largest abortion provider from receiving taxpayer dollars. “Ensuring the health and safety of Kansans means protecting all Kansans at every stage of life,” Brownback, a…Mariana Barillas -
Kansas Cut Planned Parenthood’s Funding. Then the Obama Administration Retaliated.
More people are paying attention to Planned Parenthood’s government funding following a series of undercover videos. But the fight over public funding for the abortion giant has been brewing for quite some time and is likely to get more rancorous. Case in point: Kansas. The state legislature and governor successfully moved to divert $300,000 in public funds…Nicholas Fondacaro -
Abortion Procedure Extracting Unborn Child ‘One Piece at a Time’ Triggers Controversy in Kansas
Mary Spaulding Balch has been fighting against what she calls “dismemberment abortion” since she was 17 years old. Now, at 60, she’s breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s been a long time. Too long,” Balch told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “I was naïve enough to think back in the 70s, we would…Kelsey Bolar -
Not Just Kansas Anymore: Why Voter ID Laws in These States Are Tangled Up in Courts
In the run-up to the Nov. 4 midterm elections, the courts have weighed in on voting rules, both supporting and rebuking efforts by Republican state governments to prevent fraud. The Supreme Court last week upheld a North Carolina voting law that bars same-day registration and doesn’t allow the counting of votes cast in the wrong…Josh Siegel -
Teachers in Kansas Voted to Leave Their Union. A Year Later, ‘Things Are Going Pretty Well’
OSAWATOMIE, Kan. — More than a year after teachers in the Deerfield, Kan., school district voted to leave their union, leaders say the doom-and-gloom predictions from the state’s largest teachers union haven’t come to pass. “Things are going pretty well, actually,” said Doug Crandall, a teacher who also is president of the newly revived Deerfield Educators…Travis Perry -
Conservative Groups Respond to Liberal Criticism of Kansas Tax Cuts
Conservative groups came together for a conference call Thursday, arguing against left-leaning media claims that Kansas’ steep income tax reductions have contributed to the downfall of the state’s economy. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback slashed the income tax in 2012 in an effort to reverse the state’s 15 year trend of trailing national economic averages. Some…Natalie Johnson