> since kansas is one of the most solidly republican states, there was little surprise when former president trump carried it on election day with 57% of the vote and all counties except five along the kansas city-topeka-lawrence metro. trump's vote percentage increased slightly over 2016 yet he actually carried fewer counties; in the earlier election nothing except douglas and wyandotte went democrat while in '24 johnson, shawnee, and riley flipped. the loss of those three counties was balanced out by even higher percentages in the already deep red remainder of the state. next to these, vice president harris got a little under half the vote in geary, harvey, and sedgwick, the last containing wichita and its suburbs. > born out of the memory of bleeding kansas and admitted to the union in 1861, as the civil war was beginning, the sunflower state emerged as a powerfully republican state early on and locals developed an intense hatred of the democrat party due to the anarchy of the 1850s there. about 20,000 kansans in 30 regiments and artillery batteries served in the union army in the war; the state did not see major fighting but there were numerous skirmishes, one large cavalry battle in 1864, and a good amount of guerilla warfare. kansas did not deviate from the party of lincoln until severe agricultural distress struck beginning in the late 1880s. the state became a nexus of the populist movement and was carried by james weaver's populist ticket in 1892. after voting for democrat william jennings bryan in 1896, kansas was a belweather state and voted along with the winning presidential candidate from 1900 to 1936. another period of economic disaster caused by the depression and dust bowl caused the migration of thousands of kansans to california during the 1930s.
United States