The Matter With Kansas

A braham Lincoln delivered a stirring speech about slavery at a Methodist church in Atchison, Kan., in 1859. Congregational preachers migrated west to “bloody” Kansas to urge it to vote to become a slave-free state. It did so in its constitutional convention of 1859. In that Constitution, the drafters stated: “Kansans were grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious privileges.” Kansas has voted Republican more than any other state in the union, voting for a Democratic president only four times since 1861 (1896, for William Jennings Bryan; 1932 and 1936, for Franklin Roosevelt; 1964, for Lyndon Johnson). Although it has elected Democrats as governor or to the House of Representatives or Senate on regular occasions, almost 70 percent of all its elected officials have been Republicans. But that party also has never been a monolith in Kansas.