Editing Douglas County, Kansas (section)

==Government==

===County===
In recent years, since the 1990s, the Democratic Party has been dominant in Douglas County. Democrats control all County-wide offices in the county. Douglas County is currently served by county commissioners Patrick Kelly, Shannon Reid, Karen Willey, Gene Dorsey, and Erica Anderson, all Democrats.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.douglascountyks.org/county-commission|title=County Commission|publisher=Douglas County, Kansas|access-date=March 13, 2025}}</ref> According to the Kansas Secretary of State's office, as of July 2021, there were 35,146 registered Democrats, 22,324 registered Republicans, 900 registered Libertarians, and 21,474 Independents in the county.<ref>{{Cite web |title=VR Statistics Count Report |url=https://sos.ks.gov/elections/21elec/2021-06-01-Voter-Registration-Numbers-by-County.pdf |website=State of Kansas Secretary of State}}</ref>

===State===
Democratic state representatives representing portions of the county include [[Eileen Horn]] (10th District), [[Barbara Ballard]] (44th District), [[Mike Amyx]] (45th District), and [[Dennis Highberger]] (46th District); Republican state representatives include [[Jim Karleskint]] (42nd District), and [[Ken Corbet]] (54th District). The three state senators representing the county, [[Marci Francisco]] (2nd District), [[Tom Holland (Kansas politician)|Tom Holland]] (3rd District), and [[Anthony Hensley]] (19th District), are all Democrats.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.douglascountyks.org/sites/default/files/media/depts/voting-and-elections/pdf/list-of-ks-state-representatives.pdf|title=Douglas County - State Representatives|access-date=July 27, 2020|archive-date=July 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727230810/https://www.douglascountyks.org/sites/default/files/media/depts/voting-and-elections/pdf/list-of-ks-state-representatives.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.douglascountyks.org/sites/default/files/media/depts/voting-and-elections/pdf/list-of-ks-state-senators.pdf|title=Douglas County - State Senators}} {{dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

===Presidential elections===
{{Hidden
|headercss  = background: #ccccff; font-size: 100%; width: 100%;
|contentcss = text-align: left; font-size: 100%; width: 100%;
|header     = Presidential election results
|content    =
{{PresHead|place=Douglas County, Kansas|source=<!-- <ref>{{Cite web | url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS | title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections}}</ref> --> }}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|17,523|39,582|1,602|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|17,286|40,785|1,870|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|14,688|31,195|5,148|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|17,401|29,267|1,796|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|17,929|34,398|1,314|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|20,544|28,634|933|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|17,062|18,249|4,527|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|16,116|18,116|3,568|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|12,949|19,439|9,877|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|16,149|15,752|460|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|18,975|12,880|378|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|14,106|9,360|5,318|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|14,277|11,922|1,643|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|15,316|11,646|565|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|10,533|6,936|2,114|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|7,825|9,416|112|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|11,337|5,690|38|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|11,029|4,283|39|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|11,095|3,765|64|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|9,287|4,778|389|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|8,224|3,886|79|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|9,146|3,727|141|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Republican|8,324|4,961|96|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Republican|7,346|4,833|342|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|8,887|2,297|108|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|8,052|1,922|726|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|6,266|2,197|94|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|4,975|3,834|426|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1912|Progressive|1,133|1,888|2,182|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|3,279|2,010|119|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|3,574|989|249|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|3,453|2,333|111|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|3,582|2,573|85|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1892|Republican|3,114|0|2,320|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1888|Republican|3,189|1,669|455|Kansas}}
{{PresRow|1884|Republican|3,366|1,676|490|Kansas}}
{{PresFoot|1880|Republican|3,049|1,462|247|Kansas}}
}}<!-- End of Hidden template -->

Douglas County has a political history more typical of [[Vermont]] and [[Maine]] than of the Great Plains. This is due to the county's strong New England roots. It voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election between 1864 and 1960, except in 1912 when the GOP was mortally divided and the county supported [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]]. Roosevelt would later rejoin the GOP. The county reverted to form and gave Republican presidential nominees over 60 percent of the vote in every election between 1920 and 1960 (except 1932 when [[Herbert Hoover]] received 58.7 percent). Notably, it was one of the few counties where [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] was shut out in all four of his successful campaigns for president; in FDR's national landslide of 1936, Douglas was his weakest county and the second-best for Republican nominee and Kansas Governor [[Alf Landon]].

This tradition was broken in 1964, when the conservative sentiment and Western origins of [[Barry Goldwater]] drove the county into [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s hands, making Johnson the first Democrat ever to carry the county. Even then, however, Goldwater managed 45 percent of the county's vote. With more moderate GOP candidates, the GOP carried the county in every election between 1968 and 1988. During this time, [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1976 and [[Michael Dukakis]] in 1988 were the only Democrats to come reasonably close to carrying the county.

However, the growing transformation of Lawrence into a liberal academic center has pulled the county into the Democratic column in every election since 1992. This was typical of many counties around the country dominated by college towns. In 2004, [[John Kerry]] became only the second Democrat to win a majority of the county's vote. Since then, Douglas County has been one of the most Democratic counties in Kansas; only [[Wyandotte County, Kansas|Wyandotte County]] has been more Democratic. In 2016, 2020, and 2024, for instance, [[Donald Trump]] turned in the worst showings on record for a Republican in the county without the presence of a credible third-party challenger on the ballot.

===Laws===
The county overwhelmingly voted "No" on the [[2022 Kansas abortion referendum]], an anti-abortion ballot measure, by 81% to 19%, outpacing its support of [[Joe Biden]] during the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 presidential election]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/14-out-19-counties-that-rejected-kansas-anti-abortion-measure-backed-trump-2022-8|title=14 of the 19 Kansas counties that rejected an anti-abortion amendment voted for Trump in 2020|publisher=Business Insider|last=Panetta|first=Grace|date=August 3, 2022|access-date=August 3, 2022}}</ref>

===Law enforcement===
The Douglas County Sheriff's office has two divisions, Corrections, which operates a 185-bed jail, and Operations. The Operations Division includes a dive team, a patrol, and a warrants unit.<ref name="Douglas County Sheriff's Office">{{cite web |title=Douglas County Sheriff's Office |url=http://www.dgso.org/ |website=Douglas County Sheriff's Office |access-date=October 19, 2018}}</ref> The department works with other local police agencies at the [[University of Kansas]], [[Lawrence Police Department (Kansas)|Lawrence Police Department]], [[Eudora, Kansas|Eudora]], and [[Baldwin City, Kansas|Baldwin City.]]<ref name="Douglas County Sheriff's Office"/> {{As of|2021}} the sheriff is Jay T. Armbrister.<ref name="Douglas County Sheriff's Office"/>