As Reflector reporters dissect the maladjusted 2026 session, a plea to my fellow Kansans: Take heed
Kansas Reflector senior reporter Morgan Chilson interviews an Abortion Is Murder member during a Jan. 27, 2026, rally at the Statehouse. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
On Monday morning, Kansas Reflector staff gathered at a coffeehouse to talk about the past week at the Kansas Legislature and our plans for this week and beyond.
Senior reporters Tim Carpenter and Morgan Chilson sat across from one another, Carpenter sifting through a pile of scribbled notes. Reporter Anna Kaminski worked opposite me, while editor in chief Sherman Smith commanded the head of the table with a cup of coffee and stack of paper summarizing the new state budget.
Over two hours, we brainstormed and shared plans for the next two weeks, before the Legislature returns for its April 9 and 10 veto session. Some story ideas stretched beyond that deadline, projects that would require time and in-depth reporting. You’ll see the fruits of that meeting soon enough. Stories will fill our website for the next couple of weeks and for months in the future as we track and explain legislation passed by our elected representatives.
I was honored and delighted to sit alongside this cadre of devoted journalists. Their knowledge and curiosity benefit all Kansans, especially after the 2026 session. We have held the powerful to account with powerful daily coverage.
But I also found myself unsettled after sorting through subjects for those two hours. We are paid to do this job. Our professional lives revolve around understanding who does what in the Kansas Legislature, why they’re doing it, and what it means for everyone else. We’re doing our jobs, to the best of our abilities. Yet what about everyday Kansans who don’t have that time or dedication?
Frankly, what about all the folks who are sensible, sane and well-rested?
“We also hear from people who are just upset because they want to follow it, and it’s such an intentionally bewildering process that it’s difficult for them to find out what’s going on, when things are going to happen,” Smith told me this week for our Statehouse Chats video podcast.
GOP leaders conspired to obscure their chambers’ actions. Just look at the story published Monday morning by freelancer Grace Hills (she along with Maya Smith have contributed stories throughout the last couple of months). Lawmakers rolled multiple veteran-related bills into a single package of legislation. One of those bills allows predatory businesses to exploit veterans.
Legislative chicanery ensured that senators and representatives were scared to vote against the package, which sailed through the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities.
Take that example and multiply it by 120 representatives and 40 senators. Multiply it by 3 million Kansans spread across 105 counties.
I trust Carpenter, Chilson, Kaminski and Smith to deliver. Yet I also know their jobs are made exponentially more difficult by power-hungry bigwigs who turned the final week in Topeka into a high-stakes game of chicken.
In the old days, news outlets from across the state of Kansas would send their best reporters to Topeka to track legislation. The Statehouse reporting corps would number in the dozens. Many high-quality reporters still travel to Topeka, but brutal economic realities and a shifting media landscape can challenge readers.
If you can locate their work amidst the sea of algorithmically directed content, our current crop of Statehouse reporters perform admirably. Those of us at Kansas Reflector are sharpened and motivated by others. They include the Kansas City Star’s Matthew Kelly; the Topeka Capital-Journal’s Jason Alatidd and Matt Resnick (Jack Harvel moved from the C-J to the Star’s Missouri politics beat midway through); the Beacon’s Blaise Mesa; KCUR’s Zane Irwin; KSNT’s Rebekah Chung; State Affairs Kansas’ Bryan Davis, Bryan Richardson and Adam Goldstein; the Sunflower State Journal’s Brad Cooper; and, of course, Associated Press veteran John Hanna.
I’m sure I left some folks out; my apologies. These dedicated professional showed up alongside us to do this work, from early morning committee meetings to late-night floor debates.
Yet we could double their numbers and would only make a dent in uncovering the plots and policies, the lunacy and legislation that consumed the Kansas Statehouse these past 11 weeks. There are that many stories, that many important people and that much long-term consequence for our state.
In the words of news media critic Margaret Sullivan, who has been sounding the alarm for years about the need for aggressive coverage as democratic norms erode in Washington, D.C.: “Journalism should be communicating the still-raging five-alarm fire that’s burning up our nation’s purpose and history.”
Kansans — those of you reading this column now and your family and friends — need to understand how much has been hidden from them. GOP leaders depend on ferocity of volume and velocity of process to obscure their intent. We can’t do it without you.
The state of Kansas can’t either.
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.