Post last updated at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6:
Voters have elected candidates to four Kansas Senate and four Kansas House seats that represent parts of Douglas County.
With all precincts reporting and most votes counted, here’s how the results shook out. Additional ballots will still be added to these vote totals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
No results are official until the general election canvass, which is set for 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18. The canvass is open to the public at the elections office, 711 W. 23rd St. Suite 1 in Lawrence.
You can check which districts you’re in by visiting myvoteinfo.voteks.org.
Kansas Senate races
Four Kansas Senate districts that include parts of Lawrence and Douglas County were decided in Tuesday’s election.
Here are the races:
• District 2: In the Senate district representing most of Lawrence, incumbent Democrat Marci Francisco faced a challenger in Republican David Miller.
• District 3: Democrat Dena Sattler challenged incumbent Republican Rick Kloos.
• District 9: Democrat Norman Mallicoat challenged incumbent Republican Beverly Gossage, who won her August primary.
• District 19: Democrat Patrick Schmidt and Republican Tyler Wible won their respective August primaries and faced off for the seat.
With all precincts reporting, Francisco will retain her seat, and Schmidt will represent District 19. Kloos and Gossage will also retain their seats.
“I think it made a difference that I have lived in Lawrence all these years. I’ve shown up at events, I answer questions, I’ve been out and about,” Francisco said.
She said she’s been “able to do some things, especially in the Ag and Natural Resources areas,” and she’s hoping to continue to have some influence.
Optimism about local Democrats’ success was overshadowed by anxiety over close national election results Tuesday night at the Douglas County Democrats’ watch party at Maceli’s in Downtown Lawrence.
Even as many of the candidates for Douglas County Commission and state Legislature in attendance watched their leads grow, most attendees spent much of their evening fretting over the presidential race results being analyzed on TVs and projectors across the event venue.
Douglas County Democratic Party Chair Melinda Lavon broke up the swing state analysis and state projections to thank the Democratic candidates that ran for local office.
“I recognize that we have a lot of elected Democrats here in this room and in the other room,” she said. “Thank you. You are brave for running for office, but my goodness, y’all are actually winning these elections.”
She encouraged attendees to take care of themselves and get rest as the national election results continued to slowly trickle in.
“We’re all going to go to bed tonight, we’re going to get up tomorrow and we will continue to serve our community and fighting for what is right,” she said.
Kansas House races
Four Democratic candidates ran against four Republican incumbents to represent parts of Douglas County in the Kansas House.
Here are the races:
• District 5: Democrat Henry Johns challenged Republican Carrie Barth.
• District 42: Democrat Eddy Martinez challenged Republican Lance Neelly, who narrowly won his August primary.
• District 47: Democrat Mary T. Williams challenged Republican Ronald Ellis.
• District 117: Democrat Bill Hammond challenged Republican Adam Turk.
With most precincts counted, all four Republican incumbents will keep their seats.
Kansas State Board of Education races
Four candidates are running to represent districts that include parts of Lawrence and Douglas County in the Kansas State Board of Education.
• District 4: Democrat Kris Meyer and Republican Connie O’Brien vied for the District 4 seat, which covers most of Douglas County, including Eudora, Baldwin City and parts of southern and western Lawrence.
• District 6: Democrat Beryl New and Republican Bruce Schultz ran for the District 6 seat, which includes a northern section of Douglas County and most of Lawrence.
Meyer held a lead for most of the evening, but O’Brien leapt ahead with the final precincts coming in. New held a handy lead over Schultz with all precincts counted.
Other Kansas House seats
The four Kansas House districts that represent the bulk of Lawrence, and another that represents part of Douglas County, were decided months before Tuesday’s election.
Kansas House Districts 10, 44, 45 and 46 include most of the city of Lawrence. The Democrats running for Districts 10 and 46 — Suzanne Wikle (rhymes with Michael) and Brooklynne Mosley, respectively — won their primaries on Aug. 6 and faced no challengers in the general election. Both will be freshman legislators.
Both candidates shared their views in our questionnaires ahead of the August primary election. Read about Wikle’s stances at this link; read about Mosley’s at this link.
The Democrats running for Districts 44 and 45 — incumbents Barbara Ballard and Mike Amyx, respectively — ran unopposed in the Aug. 6 primary election and will be unopposed in the Nov. 5 general election as well. Ballard has represented Lawrence in the Legislature since 1993, Amyx since 2019.
Kansas House District 43 includes a small portion of southeastern Douglas County. Republican Rep. Bill Sutton is running unopposed for reelection.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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Mackenzie Clark/Lawrence Times
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
