KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The trial over Kansas' newly drawn congressional maps began and ended with the words of former Senate President Susan Wagle.
In 2020, Wagle urged a gathering of GOP donors to elect a state legislative supermajority that could draw Republican-friendly lines for all four congressional districts, ousting Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids.
Attorneys defending the map brushed off the early references to Wagle, emphasizing that she was no longer in the Legislature and played no role in drawing the challenged map. In closing arguments, attorneys for the group of voters suing to overturn the new district boundaries returned to Wagle, arguing the Wichita Republican "laid the foundation" for the map, which split racially and ethnically diverse Wyandotte County along Interstate 70 and combined liberal-leaning Lawrence with central and western Kansas.
