There should be nothing quite like watching the country’s municipal crown jewel fall to the communists to put Republicans back on the straight and narrow, but let’s see if it’s a wakeup call for the Johnson County Republican Party to take itself to the woodshed and stop JOCO’s blue plague.
For decades, Johnson County stood as the heart of Kansas conservatism – prosperous, suburban, civic-minded, and proudly red. Yet today, the Kansas 3rd Congressional District tells a very different story. Four consecutive defeats by Democrat Sharice Davids make it painfully clear that the Johnson County Republican Party – once a powerhouse of organization and influence – has become largely irrelevant in shaping political outcomes, not only in its own backyard but across the entire state.
The GOP in Johnson County used to win on the strength of disciplined organization, effective fundraising, and deep bench strength in local offices. That foundation has eroded. Party infighting, personality politics, and an obsession with national culture-war talking points have replaced neighborhood-level voter outreach and issue-based persuasion. While the county’s population has boomed, its Republican leadership structure has withered – increasingly driven by alienating ideological purism rather than coalition-building that should be bridging the Christian Right with capitalist influencers and winnable practical moderates.
The result? A fractured conservative base that can’t even come close to reclaiming the district from one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the Midwest. Davids, whose PBS debate performance with Amanda Adkins showed once and for all she lacks the substance and the intelligence to comprehend the job to which she’s elected, hasn’t won because of a sweeping progressive wave. She’s won because the Republican opposition has become unserious, disorganized, and out of touch with suburban voters who still lean fiscally conservative but overall lack guts and recoil from stridency and division. Why are JOCO Republicans sitting elections out, or worse yet, voting for a candidate whose party is circling the drain of fascism and communism?
Johnson County’s decline as a conservative anchor weakens the entire state GOP. Its immense population and wealth once supplied both the votes and the dollars that carried conservative candidates statewide. When Johnson County falters, the burden shifts to smaller, rural counties – counties that simply don’t have the numbers or the financial clout to offset losses in the Kansas City metro. That imbalance threatens to turn what has long been a reliably red state into a patchwork of blue enclaves and demoralized former Republican strongholds.
The party’s problem isn’t ideology alone; it’s leadership. The local GOP has failed to present credible, forward-looking candidates who reflect the county’s demographic and economic evolution. Instead of cultivating pragmatic conservatives who can talk about property taxes, schools, and infrastructure – issues that still matter deeply to suburban families – it has alienated moderates and independents (many of whom have far more in common with conservatives than they think) through purity tests and internal feuds.
Until new leadership emerges that values real effectiveness, the Johnson County Republican Party will remain a cautionary tale. Its irrelevance today is not just a local embarrassment; it’s a strategic disaster in the making for the conservative movement in Kansas.
If conservatives hope to preserve their influence in Topeka and Washington alike, they must first reclaim credibility where it’s been squandered – in the very county that once defined Kansas Republicanism. That begins with humility, discipline, and a return to the basics of persuasion and service. Without it, the red heart of Kansas will continue to fade to purple – and eventually, blue. ###
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
