Welcome to the Wednesday, December 20, Brew.
By: Mercedes Yanora
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Nearly half of seats in Kansas’ school board elections uncontested in 2023
- 40 members of Congress have announced they will not seek re-election in 2024—more than at this point in previous cycles
- 85 candidates filed for congressional and statewide offices last week
Nearly half of seats in Kansas’ school board elections uncontested in 2023
Ballotpedia covered every school board election in seven states on Nov. 7: Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. We’re continuing our deep dive into election results in each of those states.
Today, let’s look at Kansas.
Of the 1,160 school board seats up for election, 579 (49.9%) were uncontested.
Fourteen of those uncontested elections had fewer candidates than seats up for election, and 45 had no candidates on the ballot, guaranteeing a total of 68 seats to write-in candidates, representing 6% of all seats up for election.
Overall, 1,100 (95%) of the 1,160 seats up for election were in Republican-leaning districts, 25 (2%) were in Democratic-leaning districts, and 35 (3%) were in districts with a plurality of unaffiliated voters.
While Kansas’ school board elections are officially nonpartisan, Ballotpedia researched publicly available voter files and candidate filing information to identify the partisan affiliation of candidates running in these elections. Registered Democrats won 84% of the 25 seats in the state’s six Democratic-leaning districts, and registered Republicans won 80% of the 1,100 seats in the 269 Republican-leaning districts.
The results were pretty evenly split for the 35 seats in the 10 unaffiliated-leaning districts. Democrats won 40% of the seats, Republicans won 43%, and independent or minor party candidates won 17%.
Election results generally mirrored each district’s partisan makeup, though there were two outliers.
In one Republican-plurality district, only Democrats won: Olathe Unified School District 233, a Kansas City suburb. In one unaffiliated-plurality district, only Democrats won: Wichita Unified School District 259, a race we covered in-depth this year.
Overall, Republicans won 901 seats (78%), Democrats won 145 (13%), and independent or minor party candidates won 102 (9%). There were 12 winners (1%) whose affiliations we couldn’t identify.
Additionally, there were 179 seats up (15%) in what we call intra-party races. These are contested races in which all of the candidates have the same party affiliation.
There was one intra-party Democratic election and 177 between Republicans.
The remaining 402 seats (35%) were in contested inter-party elections, those between candidates with different party affiliations.
Both Democrats and Republicans had positive win rates in these races. A party has a positive win rate if 50% or more of that party’s candidates win election.
Of the 186 Democrats who ran, 103 won (55%) compared to 248 (52%) of the 480 Republicans.
Independent or minor party candidates had a 41% win rate in these races, with 50 of the 121 candidates winning seats.
Click on the link below to learn more about Kansas’ school board elections.
40 members of Congress have announced they will not seek re-election in 2024 — more than at this point in previous cycles
From Nov. 15-Dec. 18, eight U.S. House members announced they will not seek re-election in 2024. This count includes six Democrats and two Republicans.
Including the announcements above, 40 members of Congress — seven senators and 33 representatives — have announced they will not seek re-election in 2024. Thirty-six members of Congress had announced their retirements at this point in the 2022, 2020, and 2018 cycles.
House
Seven of the eight representatives who announced they will not seek re-election since Nov. 15 are retiring from public office:
- Rep. Dan Kildee (D), from Michigan;
- Reps. Tony Cárdenas (D) and Anna Eshoo (D), from California;
- Reps. Kathy Manning (D), Wiley Nickel (D), and Patrick McHenry (R), from North Carolina; and
- Rep. Drew Ferguson (R), from Georgia.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) is running in the Democratic presidential primary.
Looking at all representatives who are not seeking re-election in 2024:
- 18 are retiring from public office — 10 Democrats and eight Republicans;
- 11 are running for the U.S. Senate — nine Democrats and two Republicans;
- Two are running for North Carolina attorney general — Reps. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.) and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.);
- One is running for governor of Virginia — Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D–Va.); and
- One is running for president — Phillips.
When comparing the 33 House retirements to the last three cycles, there were 30 House retirements at this point in 2022, 32 at this point in 2020, and 34 at this point in 2018.
On the Senate side, seven incumbents are not seeking re-election in 2024 — the highest number at this point since the 2012 election cycle. Five of the retirees are Democrats and two are Republicans:
Six senators are retiring from public office:
- Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.);
- Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.);
- Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.);
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.);
- Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah); and
- Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is running for governor of Indiana.
When compared to the last three election cycles, there were six Senate retirements at this point in 2022, four at this point in 2020, and two at this point in 2018.
85 candidates filed for congressional and statewide offices last week
Eighty-five people declared candidacies for congressional or statewide offices in the past week, two fewer than last week. All of these candidates declared before their state’s official filing deadline.
Thirty-seven of those candidates are Democratic, while 47 are Republican. One is a minor-party candidate.
Seven candidates are running for Congress, 75 for state legislatures, one for a state court of appeals, and two for state executive offices.
Since the beginning of the year, Ballotpedia has identified 2,627 declared candidates for congressional and statewide offices. At this time in 2021, Ballotpedia had identified 2,783 declared candidates for 2022, 2023, and 2024 races.
An official candidate is someone who registers with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline or appears on candidate lists released by government election agencies. A declared candidate is someone who has not completed the steps to become an official candidate but who may have done one or more of the following:
- Appeared in candidate forums or debates;
- Published a campaign website;
- Published campaign social media pages;
- Advertised online, on television, or through print;
- Issued press releases; and
- Interviewed with media publications.
