IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
CONTACT:
Lauren Fitzgerald
[email protected]
(785) 249-6923
Johnson County Community to Kansas Legislature: No New Maps!
MISSION, KANS.— Over 200 Johnson County residents gathered at Powell Community Center in Mission Tuesday evening, October 14th, to hear from community leaders about why changing Kansas’ congressional maps mid-decade would harm Johnson County and the rest of Kansas. The last redistricting fight took place in 2022, after the 2020 Census was conducted, which follows the standard process Kansas uses each decade.
The rally took place the night before Kansas Republican lawmakers were scheduled to meet with the White House to discuss advancing the Trump Administration’s agenda at the state and local level, with redistricting rumored to be a topic.
“This is the kick off of our effort to educate Kansans about this scheme to change the rules and manipulate congressional district boundaries in an off-year for no other reason than to give one political party more power,” said Laurel Burchfield, “This is not in the best interest of Johnson County—or any other community in this state.”
In July 2025, President Donald Trump requested that Republican-controlled states redraw their congressional boundaries to maximize the number of Republican-dominated districts. According to Kansas Public Radio, Kansas Republicans are circulating a petition to call a special session to move forward with redistricting. Kansas Republican leaders have discussed splitting Johnson County into two or more congressional districts, despite repeatedly emphasizing the need to keep the county whole in 2022.
More pictures from the event can be found here.
What Johnson County community leaders said:
- “Johnson County is the economic engine of Kansas. Splitting up our region—which leads the state in economic power—threatens our business community. Our workforce, our community, our families are all interconnected. Dividing us just so politicians can hand-pick their voters is wrong.” – Tiffany Stovall, CEO, Kansas Manufacturing Solutions
- “A vote to redistrict Johnson County, Kansas is, clear and simple, an anti-Johnson County vote. Our Johnson County legislative delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, have more than enough votes to put a stop to this travesty. They must oppose new maps that split up our county. They are in the Kansas Legislature to vote in the best interests of their community and their state.” – Steve Rose, columnist and lifelong Johnson County resident
- “What we’re seeing here in Kansas – and across the country – is not right. It’s not fair. This is not a partisan issue. It doesn’t matter whether Democrats or Republicans do it — changing the rules and changing congressional district boundaries mid-decade is wrong. It is even worse when people in power manipulate the boundaries to silence voters and take more power for themselves. That is exactly what is happening now.” – Aude Negrete Banos, founder Kansas Latino Community Network
- “In 2017, I started showing up at my representatives’ office, telling our story and sharing how critical Medicaid is to families like mine. It was really hard to get elected leaders to listen. That’s why good, fair representation is so important, especially for kids like Danny and families like mine. Leaders are supposed to listen to their voters. But more and more often—they don’t. That is what happens when districts are manipulated—or gerrymandered. Politicians are less and less accountable to the people they represent.” – Laura Robeson, parent and advocate from Prairie Village
- “Our towns and cities in Kansas are built on shared history, shared schools, shared struggles, shared hopes. When you divide communities—slicing neighborhoods apart, separating people who shop at the same grocery store, attend the same schools, worship in the same churches—you weaken the ability of those communities to organize, to make their voices heard, to advocate for their needs.” – Rev. Ben Wilson, Senior Pastor, Saint Andrew Christian Church in Olathe
- “Our elected officials’ job is to listen to us and try to help make life better for families. But when districts are manipulated and gerrymandered to make elections less competitive, officials listen less to voters, and more to special interest groups. By coming together and making our voices heard, we can make sure our leaders know that we oppose this plan to rig the system. We say NO NEW MAPS.” – Laurel Burchfield, Advocacy Director, Mainstream Coalition
If Kansas Republicans successfully call a special session in November, “Kansas would join a wave of Republican- and Democrat-led states engaging in overt gerrymandering to tip the balance of power in the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives… Redistricting normally happens every 10 years, following the national census. And politicians typically shy away from making partisan objectives explicit during the map-drawing process. But this year, political pressures at the federal level have pushed state Legislatures to ignore those norms.” [NPR, 8/29/2025]
Background:
In recent months, other community and business leaders have raised concerns about plans to divide Johnson County into multiple congressional districts for strictly political reasons.
According to a news story by the Kansas News Service, “Kevin Walker, chief policy officer for the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, said his organization opposed splitting Johnson County up in 2022 and would take the same stance now. He said dividing the county between two districts would threaten its history of strong economic development. ‘The success that we have had has come through a high degree of collaboration. We don’t need more boundaries splitting us.’”
During the 2022 redistricting process, Republican leaders repeatedly stated that they must keep Johnson County together.
- “This map is reflective of the testimony we received from the public, both on the 14-stop listening tour in August and the virtual listening tour in November. The map creates compact and contiguous districts, preserves existing district cores, and groups together communities of interest.” – Senate President Ty Masterson and Senate Vice President Rick Wilborn
- In Senate debate, Masterson praised the Ad Astra Map for respecting testimony and guidelines, while keeping all of Johnson County in the 3rd Congressional District: “The Ad Astra 2 Map brings together communities of interest within each Congressional district to the furthest extent possible. It keeps the core of the 3rd District—Johnson County—together, merging it with southern Wyandotte and the bedroom communities in Miami, Franklin, and Anderson that have historically been part of the 3rd Congressional District and are increasingly associated with the Kansas City Metropolitan area.”
- House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins called the current congressional maps “a fair map.”
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