{"id":28575,"date":"2026-08-05T13:11:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28575"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:11:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:11:44","slug":"kansas-voters-reject-gop-backed-measure-to-directly-elect-state-supreme-court-justices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28575","title":{"rendered":"Kansas voters reject GOP-backed measure to directly elect state Supreme Court justices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit_1500w\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260730-kansas-state-capitol-vl-147p-767abb.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-b0caef\" class=\"body-graf\">Kansas voters have rejected a Republican-backed <a href=\"https:\/\/sos.ks.gov\/elections\/proposed-constitutional-amendments.html\" target=\"_blank\">constitutional amendment<\/a> that would have allowed them to directly elect state Supreme Court justices, The Associated Press projects. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-df5147\" class=\"body-graf\">In Kansas, the governor \u2014 who since 2019 has been Democrat Laura Kelly \u2014 has the power to appoint state Supreme Court justices, chosen from a list created by a nine-member nonpartisan commission. The measure on Tuesday\u2019s ballot, which was referred by the GOP-controlled Legislature, proposed abolishing that system in favor of contests that would have more closely resembled partisan races for other elected offices. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5d8c06\" class=\"body-graf\">The move came after the Kansas Supreme Court dealt conservatives some setbacks in recent years, including a 2019 ruling that the state constitution protected the right to an abortion. Voters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2022-election\/abortion-vote-kansas-may-determine-future-right-state-rcna40550\" target=\"_blank\">sided with that decision<\/a> three years later after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e95c9c\" class=\"body-graf\">Tuesday\u2019s ballot measure campaign drew more than $12 million in spending on the airwaves, according to the tracking firm AdImpact, with opponents outspending supporters by more than 2-to-1. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8bc471\" class=\"body-graf\">Opponents of the initiative argued that Kansas voters already have some say in who their state Supreme Court justices are: After they are appointed, justices face retention votes from voters after one year and then every six years afterward. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-65b519\" class=\"body-graf\">Another core part of their message was keeping the judicial process separate from electoral politics to avoid partisan influences. In Wisconsin, for instance, recent state Supreme Court elections \u2014 which are nonpartisan in name only \u2014 have drawn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/elections\/wisconsin-supreme-court-election-results-rcna198353\" target=\"_blank\">tens of millions of dollars<\/a> and attention from billionaire donors like Elon Musk. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0b9938\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201c\u2018No\u2019 stops judges from becoming politicians. \u2018No\u2019 prevents billionaires from buying seats on the court,\u201d a narrator said <a href=\"https:\/\/platform.adimpact.com\/viewer\/5e230627-4d2d-41fa-8490-1b61309a6e04\" target=\"_blank\">in an ad<\/a> from Kansas United for Impartial Courts, one of two major groups that opposed the ballot measure. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0aff79\" class=\"body-graf\">Supporters of the effort argued that voters should have more input in the process. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/judicial-selection-map\" target=\"_blank\">Brennan Center for Justice<\/a> at New York University School of Law, voters in 21 states directly elect supreme court justices. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ddc6aa\" class=\"body-graf\">In a spot run by the biggest spender on the pro-amendment side \u2014 a group called Kansans for Democracy Inc. \u2014 a narrator criticizes the current commission system, ripping \u201celites\u201d for getting to \u201cdecide who\u2019s on the Kansas Supreme Court, behind closed doors, trading favors, rewarding friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-088197\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThe public can\u2019t see it or control it. Voters like you completely cut out,\u201d the narrator adds.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ec8562\" class=\"body-graf\">While none of the ads from either side mention abortion rights or other hot-button political issues that state supreme courts tend to rule on, Democratic operatives in Kansas told NBC News that the intent of the measure was clear.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-232ef8\" class=\"body-graf\">They noted that as far back as 2019, state Attorney General Kris Kobach, formerly Kansas\u2019 secretary of state, had called on the Legislature to advance a ballot measure to pave the way for the direct election of Supreme Court justices. In 2022, Kobach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kansas.com\/news\/politics-government\/article266267436.html\" target=\"_blank\">told The Wichita Eagle<\/a> that such a move would allow, \u201cslowly and quietly,\u201d for anti-abortion justices to be placed on the court.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-67b212\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThis is about abortion,\u201d Kansas Democratic Party Chair Jeanna Repass said in an interview ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote. \u201cPlain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-067704\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">Progressives also argued that Republicans chose to put the measure on the August primary ballot, rather than on the one for the November general election, to take advantage of lower voter turnout. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kansas voters have rejected a Republican-backed constitutional amendment that would have allowed them to directly elect state Supreme Court justices, The Associated Press projects. In Kansas, the governor \u2014 who since 2019 has been Democrat Laura Kelly \u2014 has the power to appoint state Supreme Court justices, chosen from a list created by a nine-member&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-07\/260730-kansas-state-capitol-vl-147p-767abb.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}