Three weeks ago I published a diary (link) taking stock of Kansas’ political map. Daunting —more than 90% red— in even the best of times. 105 counties. Five carried by Joe Biden. Nine carried by Laura Kelly, who won, something like comfortably. “Cattle don’t vote. People do,” the diary explained. I urge you to take another look at that diary.
The diary proposed an amped-up effort in the four counties carried by Kelly, but lost by Biden. And it proposed a new attack in four far-western counties. Embedded in the name of each county above is a link to that county’s ActBlue site, if it has one. All eight counties are in the top 25 percent of Kansas counties in terms of population. In 2020 all eight were in the top 25 percent of Kansas counties in terms of Biden percentage.
Counties carried by Kelly/lost by Biden, linked to the County Democrats’ ActBlue connection:
Lyon County (donor link)
Sedgwick County (donor link)
Crawford County (donor link)
Harvey County (donor link)
The four far-western counties, linked, where possible, to the County Democrats’ ActBlue connection:
Finney County (not yet connected to ActBlue)
Seward County (donor link)
Ford County (donor link)
Ellis County (donor link)
The bases for inclusion in the group of eight:
(1) The presence of a Regents University in the county. See, Ellis County, where there are more students enrolled at Fort Hays State University than there were voters in the 2020 Presidential election. Lyon County, Sedgwick County, and Crawford County are each also Regents University counties.
(2) A majority-minority population. See, Finney County, Seward County, and Ford County: The huge slaughterhouse counties. (Lyon County is also a slaughterhouse county, but is not majority minority.)
(3) Kelly having carried a county in 2018, followed by Biden losing it in 2020. See, Lyon County, Sedgwick County, Crawford County, and Harvey County.
In sum, much emphasis has been placed on leveraging the demographics of contemporary Democratic majorities. Most especially on highly educated populations, youth, and people of color. Check out the earlier diary for much more densely-packed information as to all of that.
How It Works.
Kansas Democrats who have witnessed Douglas County’s metamorphosis from Republican to Democratic watched in astonishment when —on election night in 1972— plain-spoken, free-thinking Democrat I.J. Stoneback, a not-young farmer, trailed all night, then (when the KU student precinct at last came in) catapulted ahead and won a long-Republican seat on the County Commission. Douglas County’s Commission is now unanimously Democratic, and Douglas County supports Democrats at every level.
This thing could be made to work by (i) identifying the contemporary equivalent of “the KU student precinct(s)” in each of these counties, (ii) making sure we field an outstanding Democratic County Commission candidate in each of the districts wherein such a precinct is found, and (iii) supporting those candidates with intense voter registration and get-out-the-vote in those precincts. “The KU student precinct” could be a student precinct in Hays, a Latino precinct in Liberal, or…
I would love to read comments by anyone with memories of that 1972 Douglas County race.
Taking Action.
Success can only be organic—community-generated and community-led. For a vital county party has community-based elected officials holding courthouse offices, legislative seats, and the like. In Kansas, community-based elected officials provide their party with feet on the ground, trained to get their voters registered and to the polls. And community-based elected officials know their neighborhoods. They have a dog in the fight. Candidate recruitment and resources for legislative candidates are subject to the gravitational pull of the parties’ leadership in the State Capital. County Commission races are formed not in the Statehouse, and (but for any Shawnee County race) not in Topeka at all.
For reasons much more fully explained in the earlier diary, the only courthouse races in Kansas in 2022 are likely to be in less than a handful of single-member County Commission districts in each county. The entire Commission is on the ballot nowhere.
A survey of some of the smaller of these counties revealed that Commissioners there are salaried in the mid-40’s. And the job just isn’t all that time-consuming. So people —even pretty decent people— can be persuaded to run.
The filing fee for a County Commission race is several-fold higher than the filing fee for —say— a State House seat. That filing fee does in fact deter new candidates. And as the filing deadline approaches, the action to be taken now is action to ensure that these eight disparate county parties are not slowed in any way in their respective efforts to field outstanding candidates by any concern about any filing fee.
The ask.
We simply cannot fail to start to rebuild in rural and small town Kansas. Expanding our targets to include the eight counties I have identified is the right step forward now. The earlier diary generated a few dollars, but more is needed. Please join me in contributing something to each of the seven county parties connected to ActBlue. If you’ve got $175 to turn a red state around, please send $25 to each of the seven. If you’ve got $70, please send $10 to each. If you’ve got $25, please just pick one and send it there.
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The deadline prior to which candidates must file grows inexorably nearer.