As Republicans and Democrats wait for election results to show whether the GOP retains supermajority control of the Kansas Legislature, several candidates have already effectively won their races.
Kansas Secretary of State’s Office records show 57 Statehouse candidates — representing a little more than one-third of all legislative races — are running unopposed in the 2024 general election.
Republicans currently hold 85 of 125 seats in the House and 29 of 40 seats in the Senate. Those two-thirds majorities give a unified Republican caucus the ability to override vetoes to pass laws and budget line-items while also passing constitutional amendments without Democrat support.
Democrats are attempting to break the supermajorities, and would need to either pick up two seats in the House or three in the Senate, while Republicans want to grow their supermajorities.
Eight of the 40 Senate seats, or 20%, were already effectively decided before a vote was cast this general election season because there is only one candidate on the ballot, though some races had contested primaries. That was also the case in 49 of 125 House seats, or 39%.