With Kansas Statehouse session beginning, don’t be fooled by lawmakers. You’re the boss of them.
Senate President Ty Masterson on Jan. 13, 2026, crosses the street on the north side of the Statehouse. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
With a new Kansas legislative session dawning, all Kansans must understand one fundamental truth.
The government of this state works for you.
You know who has the best claim to that glorious Statehouse building in downtown Topeka? You do. Not lawmakers or lobbyists or associated special interests. That building exists to make your life and the lives of your friends and neighbors better. However bizarre or dark the news that flows from that place, never forget your ownership of its marble halls.
You can visit. You should visit. Anyone can come into the building and watch the House or Senate in session. You can chat with those lawmakers or lobbyists or associated special interests. You can just watch and make fun of them in your mind.
You don’t need to have to a reason to go. Drop by anytime during business hours. That’s the power of living in a representative democracy. Your elected officials answer to you. If they don’t, they will shortly be replaced by other elected officials. Any Kansan has the right, even the obligation, to check up on those paid to govern on their behalf.
I had already planned to kick off my inaugural Statehouse Scraps column of 2026 with this little sermon. But it turns out that someone else had similar thoughts last week.
This would be AFL-CIO executive secretary-treasurer Jake Lowen, who told a labor rally Wednesday that the Statehouse can feel like it’s built for “other people, fancy people, people in suits.”
“But you know what? This is your house. This is your state,” he proclaimed.
Opinion editor Clay Wirestone and editor in chief Sherman Smith sum up the Kansas Legislature’s week in the first installment of Statehouse Chats.
He’s right.
One of the reasons that I write about legislators the way I do — irreverently, including comparisons to tipsy raccoons — is that we treat people in power with far too much reverence. They work for us. Sure, people might badmouth lawmakers on Facebook, but they don’t want to make waves in public.
That good-natured civility makes sense while avoiding conflict in your daily life. But it doesn’t work if it keeps you from voicing what you believe and demanding the people who serve you do their jobs.
So get in the car and visit the Statehouse. I know that folks in western Kansas face more of a challenge than those of us in the northeast. But you owe it to yourself to see where policy is made that affects all 3 million Kansans. All the lawmakers and public officials who work in the building must be reminded that they don’t do it for themselves or positive headlines.
They do it for you.
Melissa Stiehler, advocacy director for Loud Light Civic Action, told the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that violence against transgender individuals has increased. House Bill 2426, she said, would add to the danger those individuals face. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)
Their usual villains
The Legislature replayed one of its greatest hits last week. One of 2026’s first committee hearings tackled favorite Republican villains: transgender people.
You might think that trans folks just live among us out in the world, going to work and raising families and drinking Diet Coke. As people do. But no, because trans folks express their true gender identity, Kansas officials have targeted them repeatedly in recent years. Remember kids, elected officials believe that being different is bad.
The latest bill was touted by Secretary of State Kris Kobach as a way to supposedly reduce confusion with driver’s licenses and birth certificates. It would ultimately require that these documents list a person’s sex at birth.
This justification didn’t make any sense with earlier bills. It doesn’t make any sense now.
If someone is a transgender woman, the vast majority of the time they’re going to look like a woman. You’re going to identify that person as a woman if you see them out and about. If someone is a transgender man, the vast majority of the time they’re going to look like a man. You’re going to identify that person as a man if you see them out and about.
Forcing these people to carry identification documents that don’t align with their public presentation is a recipe for the exact confusion that Kobach decries. It also opens the door for law enforcement and officials to abuse transgender people.
Hundreds of pieces of testimony from those opposing House Bill 2426 were submitted on a laughably short timeframe. Advocates turned out in droves to oppose the bill — as they always have and always will.
Will the Republican leaders who direct their caucus listen? Count me skeptical.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, speaks to a House colleague before convening the Kansas House on Monday Jan. 12, 2026. Hawkins is seeking the Republican nomination for state insurance commissioner. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Speedy session
For the second year in a row, word in the hallways of the Statehouse is that Senate President Ty Masterson, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins want to keep the session short and tight. Last year, the motivation appeared unclear — it did give both chambers the excuse to bypass traditional debate and discussion — but this year it’s no mystery.
Elections draw near.
Lawmakers won’t be able to raise money or campaign until the session ends. With primaries in August and the general in November, you better believe that Kansas politicians want to hit the road rather than sit in boring committee meetings.
This cuts both ways. On one hand, lawmakers will have less opportunity to pass hateful or harmful legislation (see above). On the other, leaders use tight deadlines to their advantage by rushing through legislation without appropriate vetting. This gets especially touchy when it comes to budgets and various line items, which can be fiddled with up until the last minute.
A “CLOSED MEETING” sign sits March 18, 2025, outside the Old Supreme Court on the third floor of the Kansas Statehouse. The House GOP caucus was meeting inside. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Closed GOP caucus
You might remember that House Republicans closed their daily caucus meetings to members of the news media last session. I wrote a whole column about the break with longstanding practice.
From the evidence of last week, they’re doing it again. I showed up at a caucus meeting Tuesday morning along with Reflector reporter Anna Kaminski. She checked and was told the gathering was off-limits for reporters. I’m going to monitor the situation as the session continues, and you’ll be hearing more in the weeks that come.
Meanwhile, Senate and House leadership continue to restrict press access to the floors of their respective chambers. (And not inviting us to their press conferences.) Don’t worry; we’ll cover them anyway.
Senior reporter Morgan Chilson laughs while opinion editor Clay Wirestone checks his phone on Jan. 12, 2026, in the Kansas Reflector office. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Scraps on board
Welcome to the 2026 edition of Statehouse Scraps. I started writing this roundup column back in 2023. For three sessions, it appeared on Saturdays and collected tidbits from the week before.
For this 2026 session, I’m treating it somewhat differently. You’ll still see bits and bobs from the week that was, but I’ve decided to run it on Mondays. That allows us to talk more about the week that’s coming up and give you a sense of the big storylines in Topeka.
Press corps shifts at the Statehouse and continued pullback from publishers in covering state government news means that Kansas Reflector has a bigger role than ever in informing Kansas about the session. I want to respond to that, and I want to make sure you know we’re looking out for you.
As part of that effort, we’re also unveiling a weekly video podcast with editor-in-chief Sherman Smith and myself talking about the big stories and offering our own observations about what’s going on. Please let us know what you think.
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.