Kansas Republican Party - Political History

Political History

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise, which outlawed slavery above the 36⁰30' latitude in the Louisiana territories. Anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers hurried into Kansas in order to influence the outcome of the first election. The conflict became violent, also known as Bleeding Kansas and the Republican Party emerged to promote anti-slavery. The Presidential election of Abraham Lincoln v. Stephen Douglas was Kansas' first participation in an election and seventy-nine percent of its vote went to Lincoln. After Lincoln's election in 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a Free State. Kansas remained a fairly Republican state for the next thirty years. The Republican Party during that time supported "free men" and "free soil". They promoted national development through railroad expansion, internal improvements, and banking.

In the 1880s, the Republican Party was the party of prohibition in Kansas; they wanted stricter enforcement. In the 1890s, the Populist Party was formed by farmers who opposed the Republican Party. The Populist party gained power and won most of the elections in the 1890s.

In the early 1900s, The Republican party regained power with the creation of the progressives. The progressive-era governors sought after the reformation of the Republican Party. In doing this, they created a standard for the Republican gubernatorial seat in Kansas. These progressive lawmakers made significant changes in the state constitution, including:

1903: Line-item veto for rights; 1911: Women's voting rights

The progressive lawmakers made changes to the U.S. Constitution as well, including:

1911: Authorized the income tax; 1913: Direct election of U.S. senators; 1919: Women's suffrage

The party wanted decreased spending and tax cuts during the 1920s and 1930s because of the Depression. Between 1861 and 1954, Kansas has had five Democratic governors but they all only served for one term. In the 1970s, the party leaders fought for freedom of government involvement on economic matters and they wanted more government involvement on social matters, such as abortion and marriage. In 1974, Senator Bob Dole used the abortion issue to get all of the pro-life supporters to support him in his election against Representative Bill Roy.Pro-life supporters accused Roy of performing abortions and Dole won.

In 1994, the party's polar alliance won most of the elections and quickly rose to power. The party had split into the polar alliance that controlled the party organization and the House Republican caucus and the moderates who controlled the Senate Republican caucus. The polar alliance controlled the party for the past 14 years but they did not win any governor seats. The moderates gained more power in the 2000s than the polar alliance and many have even crossed over to the Democrats.