The Ticket-Splitting Voter

The United States remains politically polarized, but are some voters returning to ticket splitting? A look at whether voters are becoming more likely to support candidates from different parties and what that means for races across the country this November.

Jonathan Shorman is The Kansas City Star’s lead political reporter, covering Kansas and Missouri government. Shorman has spent more than a decade covering politics in both states, including previously at The Wichita Eagle. He was part of a team of Eagle reporters who won the 2019 George Polk Award for political reporting.

Dr. Russell Arben Fox is a professor of political science and the director of the History & Politics and the University Honors programs at Friends University, a small Christian liberal arts college in Wichita, KS, where he and his family have resided since 2006. Fox has published on a wide range of topics in political theory, world politics, and religion and politics, but since coming to Kansas has focused primarily on issues pertaining to urban and local democracy. He is a regular columnist with Insight Kansas, and frequently comments on state and municipal politics around Wichita and beyond.

Stephanie Sharp was first elected at 26, serving in the Kansas House of Representatives and on the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees. With over 20 years of Republican legislative and campaign experience, she created the VoteSharp.biz voter CRM for candidates to build and manage authentic voter relationships. She holds degrees from Southwestern College (Winfield, KS), a graduate degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, and is a frequent presenter on voter and policymaker engagement.