THE HILL: Now what’s the matter with Kansas?

Kansas is no swing state. It hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, and hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since the 1930s, and it even inspired the book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.”

And yet, in a sense, Kansas is a swing state this year. The states already defied national expectations with this month’s vote on abortion. Its race for governor, likely to be one of the closest in the country, will test whether ticket-splitting in national and state elections — which put Republicans Mitt Romney and Charlie Baker in charge of Massachusetts, and Democrat Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor’s mansion — falls victim to today’s hyperpartisan, lockstep politics.

Get more from Senior Vice President James Nash on ticket-splitting at the state and national level, in this opinion piece for The Hill.