A recent deep-dive into just who is funding the ads opposed to the constitutional amendment that would allow Kansas residents to directly elect justices found that the “Kansas Fair Courts Fund” is related to the Kansas Values Institute, which spent more than $23 million on Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s reelection campaign.
“Few know that a Kansas nonprofit in 2022 spent more than the combination of the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial campaigns to help re-elect Gov. Laura Kelly,” Journalist Earl Glynn wrote on Substack. “And one DC-based nonprofit contributed $14 million of the $23 million that shaped that gubernatorial race.
“After ‘buying’ the gubernatorial race in Kansas in 2022, Kansas Values Institute appears to have set its sights on making sure Kansans cannot vote on Supreme Court judges.”
According to Glynn, the Sunflower State Journal reported recently that the directors of Kansas Fair Courts Fund included: Cathy Hersh, Joyce Allegrucci (former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ campaign manager and chief of staff), and Mike Fleming (former President of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association, and appointed by Gov. Kelly to serve on the Kansas Racing Commission).
Glynn used the AI “Grok” to do an analysis of the Kansas Fair Courts Fund website and found:
- The link secure.qgiv.com/for/bq8tbb/ is directly hosted under the Kansas Values Institute’s donation system.
- Direct Evidence from the Page Itself:
- The live donation page at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/bq8tbb/ is titled “Donate to the Kansas Fair Court Fund”.
- It explicitly displays “Kansas Values Institute” as the organization (usually in the footer, header, or receipt/branding section of Qgiv forms).
- This is standard for Qgiv (a popular nonprofit donation platform): each campaign gets a unique code like /for/bq8tbb/, and the organization name is embedded on the form.
- Additional Confirmation:
- The page is part of KVI’s official fundraising infrastructure. Qgiv donation links for Kansas Values Institute projects consistently use this format.
- Kansas Values Institute’s own site (kansasvaluesinstitute.org) promotes fair courts work and directs donations through their system.
- This is the strongest possible proof short of backend access: the page itself brands the fund under Kansas Values Institute. You can visit the URL directly to see “Kansas Values Institute” listed on it.
“So if Kansas Fair Courts Fund is not another project of Kansas Values Institute, why is their name on the donation page in three places?” Glynn asked.
Moreover, according to Glynn, Kansans for Fair Courts is a project name KVI has used since 2013.
Glynn reported that between 2011 and 2024, the most recent year for which figures are available, Kansas Values Institute has raised nearly $43 million and spent more than $42 million on Kansas elections.
Elizabeth Patton, president of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Kansas, said that organizations such as Kansas Values Institute and Kansas Fair Courts Fund are trying to prevent Kansans from making their own choices.
“In this election to date, there have been millions more spent by the left to prevent every Kansan from having a voice,” Patton said. “However, regardless of political spending, we see time and again that voters have agency and the highest spender does not always equal success. Kansas voters are very capable of making decisions on what direction they want their government to go, and that’s why we are advocating for a Yes vote on August 4 — because voters are smart, and everyone deserves to have a voice, not merely one special interest group.”
The amendment would allow Kansans a say in Supreme Court selections
Kansas is the only state in the Union in which an attorney-dominated nominating commission — composed of 5 attorneys and four non-lawyers — selects nominees to the Kansas Supreme Court.
An amendment to the Kansas Constitution on the ballot on August 4, 2026, would change that.
Currently, according to the Kansas Judicial Branch, “when there is a vacancy on the bench, the Supreme Court Nominating Commission reviews applications and conducts public interviews of nominees. The commission narrows the nominee pool to three names that it sends to the governor. The governor chooses one nominee to appoint.”
Voters’ only direct voice in the state supreme court is the opportunity to vote to “non-retain” a justice at the end of their six-year term.
The amendment, if passed, would provide for the direct election of Kansas Supreme Court Justices and abolish the nominating commission. A “yes” vote on the amendment would also allow staggered elections and authorize the Kansas Legislature to develop rules governing them. The terms would still be six years.
“As it stands, Kansas has a judicial system that’s largely controlled by one interest group: the Kansas Bar Association,” Patton said. “We’re fighting to give every Kansas voter a say in selecting our Supreme Court justices so that we can end undue influence by political insiders over our highest court. It’s time to make our court truly impartial with accountability and transparency from everyone.”
