Kansas was dominated by the Republican Party for the first three decades of statehood (1860s–80s). Although the Republicans remain the dominant force in state politics, the Democrats controlled the governorship in the early 2000s.
The Republican Party of early Kansas espoused the abolitionist ideals of the New England settlers who sought to ban slavery from the state. After the Civil War, the railroads played a major role in Republican politics and won favorable tax advantages from the elected officials. The party's ranks swelled with the arrival of immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany, who tended to side with the party's by then strongly conservative beliefs.
The Republicans' hold over state life was shaken by the Populist revolt toward the end of the 19th century. The high point of Populist Party power came in 1892, when the insurgents won all the statewide elective offices and also took control of the senate. When electoral irregularities denied them control of the house, they temporarily seized the house chambers. The two parties then set up separate houses of representatives, the Populists meeting one day and the Republicans the next. This continued for six weeks, until the Kansas supreme court ruled that the Republicans constituted the rightful legal body. After a Republican sweep in 1894, the Populists returned to office in 1896, but the party declined rapidly thereafter.
The Democrats rose to power in the state as a result of the split between the conservative and progressive wings of the Republican Party in 1912. Nevertheless, the Democrats were very much a minority party until after World War II. They held the governorship for 18 of the 28 years between 1957 and 1985; the most recent Democratic governor was Kathleen Sebelius, elected in 2002. Republicans have regularly controlled the legislature. In 2002 there were 1,615,699 registered voters. In 1998, 29% of registered voters were Democratic, 45% Republican, and 26% unaffiliated or members of other parties.
In 1988 and 1992, Kansans voted for George Bush in the presidential elections. In the 1996 election, native Kansan Bob Dole won 54% of the vote; Clinton received 36%; and Independent Ross Perot garnered 9%. In the 2000 election, Republican George W. Bush won 58% of the vote to Democrat Al Gore's 37%. Independent Ralph Nader won 3% of the vote. The state had six electoral votes in the 2000 presidential election.
Bob Dole, first elected to the US Senate in 1968 and elected Senate majority leader in 1984, reclaimed the post of majority leader when the Republicans gained control of the Senate in the elections of 1994. In a surprise move in May 1996, Dole announced his retirement from the Senate to concentrate on his presidential campaign. In November, the race to fill his remaining term was won by Republican Sam Brownback. Completing the term, Brownback won his first full term in November 1998. Kansas's other Republican senator, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, also vacated her seat in 1996; it was won by Republican Congressman Pat Roberts, who was reelected in 2002. In the 2002 elections, Kansas voters sent three Republicans and one Democrat to the US House. In the state legislature in mid-2003, there were 30 Republicans and 10 Democrats in the senate and 80 Republicans and 45 Democrats in the state house.