All forty seats in the Kansas State Senate are up for election on Nov. 5, 2024. Republicans hold a 29-11 majority in the chamber, and members will be elected to four-year terms.

This is the first year since redistricting Kansas is holding state Senate elections, since new maps went into effect in August 2022. The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Andrew Bahl and Rafael Garcia wrote, “The state Senate and House maps were mildly contested in the Legislature, particularly in the Senate where the map [created] a fourth, Democrat-leaning district in Topeka and Lawrence.”

With more than two-third control in each chamber, Republicans hold a veto-proof majority, giving them the power to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto. It is one of four states with a veto-proof majority of one party and a governor of another, along with Kentucky, North Carolina, and Vermont, and one of ten states with a divided government. 

Kansas City News Service’s Zane Irwin said the partisan composition of the Legislature could have implications on the state’s abortion policies. In 2022, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have prohibited the state from adding a Constitutional right to abortion. In 2024, the Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly’s veto on HB2749, which requires health care providers to ask patients questions about why they are getting an abortion.

Democrats would need to gain three House seats or three Senate seats to block a Republican supermajority. To maintain their supermajority, Republicans would need to lose fewer than two House seats and fewer than three Senate seats.

Irwin also said, “Right now we have a multi-tiered tax system, and Republicans would like to bring it to where there’s one rate that you pay in Kansas whether you are a low-income individual or are a millionaire. Republicans say that would provide broad-base tax relief..Democrats say that it would bring us back to a more austere era under Gov. Sam Brownback (R) where there were major tax cuts, and Democrats were worried that that would cause cuts to social services like schools and roads.”

There are 11 open seats in the Senate, the most since Ballotpedia began tracking this data in 2012. Of those open districts, Ballotpedia identified two as battlegrounds. Ballotpedia also identified six battleground districts in which incumbents are seeking re-election. Republicans represent five of the eight total battleground districts and Democrats represent three As of Oct. 30, CNalysis identified four of these districts as Toss-Up, one as Tilt Democratic, one as Lean Democratic, one as Likely Republican, and one as Very Likely Republican. Click here to read more about the battleground elections.

The Kansas Senate is one of 85 state legislative chambers with elections in 2024. There are 99 chambers throughout the country.

The primary was August 6, 2024. The filing deadline was June 3, 2024.