Kansas GOP leader's Medicaid expansion move roils Statehouse

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Jim Denning once symbolized what for Medicaid expansion supporters was wrong with the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature. Now, the Kansas Senate majority leader is an expansion champion who's under fire from some GOP lawmakers he's supposed to be leading for working with the state's Democratic governor.

Denning recently faced criticism from Republicans for appearing at events with Gov. Laura Kelly to promote an expansion plan that she and Denning drafted. Some GOP lawmakers worry that he's undercutting their strategy of holding Medicaid expansion hostage to pressure fellow lawmakers into moving forward with their top priority: an anti-abortion measure. Some also see his efforts as a calculated ploy for voter support in his suburban Kansas City district.

Less than a year ago, Denning's face appeared on protest signs and leaflets, and banners hung briefly in the Statehouse rotunda proclaimed him among the GOP leaders with “blood on their hands.” His opposition to an expansion bill Kelly favored was key to preventing its passage.

Denning's shift shows how efforts to expand Medicaid under the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act can get bipartisan support even in the last red states to consider them. It also demonstrates how President Donald Trump's loss of support in suburban areas can scramble state and local political calculations in ways not related to the president's re-election bid or control of Congress.

“It is something that's a little bit unexpected,” said April Holman, executive director of the pro-expansion Alliance for a Healthy Kansas. “But it's a breath of fresh air after a long, long period of no collaboration across the aisle, or very little.”

Thirty-six states have expanded Medicaid or had voters approve ballot initiatives to do so. In Kansas, Republican...