Kansas redistricting ‘hellscape’ and presumed special session get spotlight in Johnson County forum

Castle Brazil, a student at Johnson County Community College, listens to discussion at an Oct. 13, 2025, forum on redistricting at Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church in Lenexa. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

LENEXA — Castle Brazil sat alone Monday night in the back of a church sanctuary in Lenexa as he processed the “insane” revelations about Republican plans for a special session on redistricting.

The Johnson County Community College student — who sat with a sign reading, “People choose the politicians / not the other way!” — said it angered him that other people his age weren’t interested in attending the public forum. When Brazil tried to get a friend to come with him, the friend decided he would rather go to McDonald’s.

An aspiring teacher, Brazil said he is civically engaged in part because his mom is active duty military and his dad is with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“When I talk to people my age, the most common response is, ‘Oh, I don’t really keep up with that stuff.’ But when I tell them actually what’s going on, then they get upset,” Brazil said. “It’s like, if they actually knew, they would be upset, too.”

One of the things he learned at the forum: Republicans could vote on new congressional maps as soon as Nov. 7.

“That’s insane, right?” Brazil said.

Republican legislative leaders on Monday authorized $460,000 to cover up to four days of a special session, which is contingent on getting two-thirds of both the state Senate and House members to sign a petition. Their goal would be to gerrymander Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids out of office by fragmenting Johnson County among two or more congressional districts.

Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said in a statement that there was “a misunderstanding out there” about redistricting efforts.

“I’m not drawing a map,” Masterson said. “A group of federal redistricting experts is developing a map from a federal perspective.”

A spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a Kansas Reflector inquiry seeking clarity about who the experts are and the meaning of “a federal perspective.”

Masterson confirmed to Kansas Reflector that legislators were preparing to meet Wednesday with White House policy staff in Washington, D.C., “to discuss a range of administration policy priorities.” But, he said, redistricting “is not on the agenda.”

Kansas Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat who is seeking her party’s nomination for governor in next year’s race, organized the Monday night forum to bring awareness to the community about the prospect of a special session on redistricting. She was joined in the panel discussion by Connie Brown Collins, of the Voter Rights Network of Wyandotte County, and Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, D-Overland Park. Johnson County Commissioner Julie Brewer moderated the discussion for a crowd of about 150 at Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church.

After the forum, Holscher posted on her campaign Facebook page the names and phone numbers of eight House Republicans who have yet to sign the special session petition. There are 88 Republicans in the House, where 84 are needed to call a special session.

 

Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, D-Overland Park, says the public could get “zero input” into Republican plans to draw new congressional maps. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Sticky fingers and a fat crayon

Sawyer Clayton predicted Republican legislative leaders would meet with the state’s GOP congressional delegation while in Washington this week to finalize the drawing of a new map.

She said the build-up to a special session detoured from the usual redistricting process, where congressional and legislative districts are redrawn once every decade to reflect changes in the census count. Those efforts are accompanied by a series of public forums held around the state so a legislative committee can gather feedback.

Additionally, Sawyer Clayton said, Republicans in the special session could rely on “parliamentary loopholes” to ensure the public gets “zero input.” Instead of holding committee hearings with testimony on the new maps, legislative leaders could bring them straight to the Senate and House floor for a vote.

“We have heard that that is a possibility,” she said.

She referred to the situation as “this bizarre redistricting scenario hellscape.”

“I think one of the problems is that when you see politicians drawing maps it’s kind of a fox guarding the chicken coop kind of thing,” Sawyer Clayton said. “We want these maps to be drawn with these dignified quills of our founding fathers. Instead, what we’re seeing is someone with sticky fingers and a big fat crayon following their id, when they should be following their sacred duty. But here we are.”

She said Republicans were violating the public’s trust by placing politics ahead of their duty to serve constituents.

“A lot of times I’ll sit there and I’ll look at these moments and I’ll think: This is why everyone hates us. This is why everyone hates politicians. It’s when these types of games occur,” she said.

 

Connie Brown Collins says Wyandotte County voters feel powerless after being split apart by redrawn congressional maps in 2022. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Powerless and disheartened

Brown Collins warned the Johnson County crowd that they could suffer the same fate as voters in Wyandotte County.

Republicans in 2022 tried to remove Davids from office by breaking the Kansas City metro into two districts. They sliced the north half of Wyandotte County out of Davids’ 3rd District and placed it into the 2nd District, which covers most of the eastern third of the state, outside of Kansas City and Wichita. To preserve the Republican advantage, they moved the Democratic stronghold of Lawrence out of the 2nd District and into the vast 1st District that covers all of western Kansas.

Brown Collins said her community is no longer valued or represented in Congress, and voter turnout has suffered.

The community doesn’t support the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the president’s executive orders, abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the siphoning of funds from public schools to prop of private schools, or the detention of law-abiding immigrants, she said.

“The list goes on,” she said. “These issues and policies directly and negatively impact our communities.”

Most people, she said, won’t even bother to approach Republican U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt, who represents the community, about their concerns.

“It’s not a good situation when you feel powerless to be able to put forth your needs and wants, your priorities, because you don’t feel you’ll be heard,” Brown Collins said. “So yeah, that’s very much the case, and it’s, it’s disheartening to a lot of people.”

 

Kellie Martiny, left, of Shawnee, talks with her sister-in-law, Chris Martiny, of Overland Park, during the redistricting forum. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Personal attack

The discussion at the church, which included a town hall-style round of questions from the audience, was billed as the first public forum on redistricting ahead of the presumed special session.

Kellie Martiny, of Shawnee, adorned in a Davids for Congress T-shirt, sat with her sister-in-law on the front row. In an interview, Martiny said the attempt to drive Davids out of office feels like a personal attack.

“Yeah, I’m really just pissed off,” she said. “It seems like a power grab. I’m here to understand the legalities of it and what we can do about it.”