Republicans face a new kind of legal challenge for cutting up Democratic strongholds in Kansas

LAWRENCE, Kansas — This liberal college town is vote-rich territory for Kansas Democrats.

But a new map of congressional districts lumps it with deep-red western Kansas — all but nullifying the ballots of the blue voters here and proving once again the power of gerrymandering.

But a novel legal challenge hopes to upend the usual response of going to federal court to block the political cartographers — in this case, Kansas Republicans — from squeezing out the influence of the opposition party.

Instead, lawsuits rely on state courts and interpretations of the Kansas Constitution, rather than the U.S. Constitution, to stop political parties from putting their fingers on the scale.

In the meantime, the state’s lone Democratic congressional district hangs in the balance.