07/16/2026
BREAKING: Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly blocks GOP election rigging scheme with new Supreme Court pick
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly just delivered one of the quietest but most devastating blows to Trump's election rigging scheme yet, and Republicans in Kansas never saw it coming.
Kelly announced she is appointing Johnson County District Court Judge Chris Jayaram to the Kansas Supreme Court, her fifth appointment to the state's highest court since taking office in 2019. Jayaram replaces retiring Justice Marla Luckert, a Republican appointee, which means six of the seven justices on the Kansas Supreme Court will now be Democratic appointees.
"Kansans deserve justices who approach every case without fear or favor," Kelly said in her announcement.
The timing could not be worse for Republicans. Earlier this year, GOP lawmakers in Kansas explored redrawing the state's congressional map to wipe out the Democratic-leaning seat around Kansas City, part of Trump's nationwide pressure campaign demanding Republicans gerrymander themselves extra House seats. They abandoned the plan when they realized they couldn't force Kelly to call a special session.
Now the math has changed for good. With a stronger liberal majority, the court could revisit its 2022 ruling that said Kansas courts have no power to strike down partisan gerrymanders. If that ruling falls, any future Republican attempt to rig the map runs straight into a wall of judges who answer to the law instead of to Trump.
Kelly is termed out of office next year, but she just made sure her legacy outlasts her. While Trump spends his days demanding Republicans steal House seats on paper, a Democratic governor in a red state spent her final year in office quietly locking the courthouse doors against him.