In September, Kansas Republican leaders said they wanted to join the national redistricting battle, initiated by President Trump, for control of the U.S. House.
But even in a state that went for Trump by 16 percentage points in 2024, Republicans could not rally enough support this fall for a special session on redistricting.
"I haven't heard a good reason yet to vote for it," said Mark Schreiber, one of 10 Republican holdouts in the Kansas state House. "To me that's not the purpose of redistricting. It's not used as a political tool to increase your majority, it's to adjust for population changes."
Other Republican-led states — like Missouri, North Carolina and Texas — have heeded Trump's call for new congressional maps boosting the GOP. Last week, California voters approved new districts favoring Democrats.
But Kansas' false start was just one example of lawmakers pushing back against a new round of partisan gerrymanders.
Republicans in Indiana and Democrats in Maryland have faced scorn from party leaders for speaking out against proposed redraws. And in Ohio, where many expected Republicans to enact a severe gerrymander, a bipartisan deal resulted in a map that moderately advantaged the GOP.
Why do some lawmakers oppose redistricting that would help their party?
Lawmakers' reasons for bucking their party leaders appear to vary widely, including those who object to gerrymandering on philosophical grounds — and some who simply fear the maneuvers could backfire.
"The particulars might be a little idiosyncratic to every state," said Patrick Miller, a political science professor at Kent State University in Ohio.
Miller said some states, like New York and Colorado, have filing deadlines for congressional candidates that place an impossibly short timeline on potential redistricting efforts, given the steps needed in the states to craft a new map.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Kansas and Indiana raised eyebrows at the six-figure sums required to pay legislators outside of a regular session.
Republican leaders in Kansas also faced a unique challenge. The state GOP would need to marshal nearly the full strength of its supermajorities in the state House and Senate to override a veto from the Democratic governor.
Overall, Miller said, opposition to redistricting has not necessarily come from a place of righteous objection to gerrymandering.
"I'm sure that there are some Republican legislators out there who are opposed to Trump, who are principled about … redistricting," Miller said. "But I don't see this as a pushback on Trump at all."
Kansas state Rep. Clark Sanders said gerrymandering is a "fact of life" in politics. But he opposed hastily redrawing Kansas' 3rd District — held by the state's lone Democrat in Congress, Sharice Davids — because he thought it could backfire on Republicans.
"If we weren't careful, we might end up redistricting and making it difficult to also win in the 2nd District," he said.
Sanders said he expressed the same concern when he received a call from the White House several weeks ago, to talk about redistricting.
Last week, Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins stripped Sanders of a leadership position for refusing to sign off on a special session. He was one of seven committee chairs and vice chairs who were demoted for failing to toe the party line on redistricting.
"It's unfortunate that we lost our positions," Sanders said. "We just … felt like we needed to do what we needed to do."
Similar objections have sparked infighting in other states. Maryland's state Senate president, Democrat Bill Ferguson, has stood in opposition to his governor by publicly opposing redistricting.
Ferguson has argued a legal challenge could place redistricting in the hands of the conservative-leaning state Supreme Court — resulting in new maps that hurt Democrats, rather than giving them a leg up.
"Ready to ride"
Despite those setbacks, redistricting proponents in several states are still trying to convince holdouts — under the watchful eyes of the national parties.
Indiana lawmakers will weigh redistricting in December. And Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently formed a redistricting advisory commission, despite state Sen. Ferguson's pushback.
Kansas Republican leaders have vowed to put maps before lawmakers when their regular session begins in January.
"I learned a long time ago that when you get thrown by the bull, you dust yourself off and you climb back on," House Speaker Hawkins wrote in a newsletter after his chamber rejected a special session.
When lawmakers return to Topeka early next year, he said, "House Republicans will be ready to ride."
Even some holdouts in Kansas, like Republican state Rep. Adam Smith, said they had not ruled out the possibility of voting to redistrict in the future.
"If there's another map that's drawn that looks a little bit more representative for my folks, I'd probably seriously consider voting for that," he said.
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