Fewer incumbents facing challengers in Kansas state legislative primaries

Kansas has 41 contested state legislative primaries on August 6, 2024. That is the fewest contested primaries in years that all 165 seats of the state legislature have been up for election since Ballotpedia started tracking in 2012.

There are 11 contested Democratic primaries and 30 contested Republican primaries. This was a record low for both parties. The average number of contested elections for Democrats in years that both chambers held elections was 15. The average for Republicans was 59.7.

There are 318 total candidates running for state legislature including 140 Democrats and 178 Republicans. For Republicans, this is a record low. For Democrats, this is below the average of 142.3.

There are 135 incumbents running for re-election in the primaries. Of them,18, or 13.3%, face primary challengers. This is a record-low number of incumbents facing primary challengers in years when both chambers held elections. The average number of returning incumbents in those years was 133.1.

Thirty incumbents did not file for re-election in 2024. This was above the combined average of 22 for both chambers in the legislature.

There were 11 retiring incumbents in the Senate, including one Democrat and 10 Republicans. This was a record high for Republicans, who had average of 5 retirements from 2010 to 2022. For Democrats, the average number of retirements was 0.7.

Three Democrats and 16 Republicans also retired from the House. The average number of retirements for Democrats was 3.9 and the average number of retirements for Republicans was 15.7.

Kansas has had a divided government since Gov. Laura Kelly (D) assumed office in 2019. Republicans have majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Since 1992, Kansas has had 16 years of Republican trifectas and no Democratic trifectas.