DBWI Challenge: Republican domination of Kansas

During most of the 20th century, Kansas was a reliably Republican state. Then the Great Depression struck. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the state's electoral votes in his landslide victories of 1932 and 1936.

From 1940 to 1972, Republicans won the state in Presidential elections with the exception of 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater.

But Watergate would be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. In 1974, Democrats made historic gains in Congressional and gubernatorial races. One such beneficiary was Bill Roy. With his upset victory over incumbent Bob Dole, Roy became the first Democrat in 36 years to represent Kansas in the US Senate. Two years later, Jimmy Carter carried Kansas in his successful election as President. But Carter's disastrous Presidency resulted in Kansas returning to the Republican fold.

In 1992, Bill Clinton carried Kansas as he won the White House back for the Democrats. Senator Roy retired that same year and the Democrats held the seat with the election of Jim Slattery. Martha Keys won election to Slattery's Congressional seat in her second stint in the House.

When Senator Nancy Kassebaum retired in 1996, Keys ran for the Senate seat and defeated Republican Congressman Sam Brownback. President Clinton won Kansas with 58 percent of the vote, the best showing by a Democrat since LBJ in 1964.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton became the first Democrat since her husband to win Kansas' electoral votes. She was elected President while Governor Kathleen Sebelius was elected to succeed Keys in the Senate.

At present, Kansas is represented in the Senate by two Democrats: Sebelius and Slattery. And the state 4 person House delegation is evenly split with 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans. And 40 percent of Kansas' registered voters are Independent.

Is there any way that Republicans could dominate politically in Kansas and win the state in every Presidential election from 1968 to the present day?
 
We can read Nupedia too. :rolleyes:

Anyway, Kansas has always been a populist state, so unless you can make the Republicans more populist the Democrats will be competitive there. Kansas has a big aerospace industry, anchored by the Boeing bomber plant, so if you make the left wing of the Democratic Party stronger that could help; a less pro-military candidate in 1988 than Al Gore maybe? Gore actually came within what, four, five points of winning Kansas that year?

Another thing that would help would be to make the Goldwaterite takeover of the Republican Party more complete; in hindsight winning the nomination in 1976 was the worst thing Reagan ever did for his cause, and without it maybe he could've beaten John Anderson for the nomination in 1980 (Although he might well have lost the general election even if he did, given how radical he was compared to Anderson; he certainly isn't getting such a landslide victory).
 
Kansas is too liberal for a Republican to win these days. Remember, this is the state that birthed the pro-choice movement and has *the* most liberal abortion laws in the country, as well as the most progressive economic policies. This would be akin to asking 'WI if the Democrats could win California'?
 
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