Smarting from special session embarrassment, Kansas House speaker drops hammer on holdouts

Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins presides over his chamber on June 18, 2024. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins failed his big test for President Donald Trump on Tuesday. He couldn’t persuade two-thirds of his fellow Republicans to call a special session to gerrymander Kansas congressional seats. I suspect Hawkins knew how ineffectual he looked (I poked some fun along those lines), and he sure didn’t seem amused by his colleagues’ intransigence.

So the time has come for payback.

The hammer fell Friday. Hawkins purged holdouts from committee leadership roles. As Kansas Reflector reported, he removed “as chairmen GOP Reps. Steven Howe of Salina, Nathan Butler of Junction City and Jesse Borjon of Topeka. Hawkins also removed Rep. Clarke Sanders of Salina and Rep. Leah Howell of Derby from vice chair positions.” Further action appears likely, as these changes affect only half of the GOP representatives who refused to support the special session.

Hawkins likely felt he didn’t have any choice. After Senate President Ty Masterson easily reached the two-thirds mark in his chamber, Hawkins had to play the disciplinarian in the House.

But I can’t imagine the move helps him politically, or makes redistricting any more likely in the 2026 session.

Think about it. Hawkins will leave the House after next session. He’s running for state insurance commissioner and has a strong shot at the office. He’s therefore heading into January as a lame duck. Those he strips of chairmanships or committee seats just need to wait until Hawkins leaves the chamber. What do they have to fear from him?

In the meantime, why would any Republican publicly humiliated in such a way decide to support gerrymandering now? Surely the smarter move, if Hawkins believed the votes were there in his conference, would be to wait until the regular session and use his power then. Either the speaker allowed his temper to get the better of him or — as I suspect — he knows the votes aren’t there to split Johnson County into multiple districts.

Let me also suggest this: Among the 87 other Kansas House Republicans, at least one or two have wondered if they might make a better speaker than Hawkins.

We’ve seen what happens when Hawkins faces challenges before. He pitched a fit when Lawrence Democrat Dennis “Boog” Highberger contemplated a symbolic run for speaker. But with Hawkins on the way out, perhaps an ambitious Republican member sees a chance for advancement.

I’m just asking questions here!

Finally, the entire situation highlights a Hawkins’ tendency to mislead the public.

On Tuesday, when he gave up efforts to call the special session, the House speaker stated the following via news release: “Planning a Special Session is always going to be an uphill battle with multiple agendas, scheduling conflicts, and many other unseen factors at play.”

Three days later, in his “Majority Record” newsletter, Hawkins was singing a different tune. There, he wrote: “Unfortunately, only 78 of 88 Republican House members signed the petition calling for a November 7th special session. Once we reached the November 7th deadline, the petitions are void and the process would need to start again.”

Anyone with with a functioning brain can see what happened here.

Hawkins got the bad news out of the way with a short, obfuscatory statement. His vanilla-flavored comments about scheduling filled the first round of news stories. But when it came time to communicate at length with constituents, Hawkins described a less-flattering scenario. He didn’t just face an “uphill battle.” No, 10 of his Republican colleagues didn’t agree with the cockamamie scheme to hand another GOP seat to Trump.

I might just be old fashioned, but I prefer political leaders who tell the truth up front and don’t require an extra three days to ponder their words.

Before signing off today, let’s also note that I could be wrong. The Legislature could reconvene in January and whisk through a new congressional map, booting Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids out of Congress. Hawkins could revel in the accolades of fellow Republicans. I don’t claim to understand the ways of politicians from either party. They can be strange creatures, and please don’t feed them after midnight.

But for now, all Hawkins appears to have is a recalcitrant caucus and appetite for vengeance. What could go wrong?

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.