(Vanessa Vaughn) West is a Democrat making her second run for a Kansas House seat representing a western Kansas City neighborhood where Republicans have held sway since the construction of homes began in the late 1990s.

Despite that history, West’s race against Republican state Rep. Angela Stiens is on the national Democratic Party’s radar, as is the Kansas Legislature. Democrats need to gain just two seats in the 125-member House or three in the 40-member Senate to break a supermajority that has enabled Republicans to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes of measures restricting abortion providers and transgender rights.

A similar battle is playing out in North Carolina, where the flip of a single seat in either the House or Senate could cost Republicans a veto-proof majority that has repeatedly imposed its will over the objections of a Democratic governor. In Nevada, meanwhile, it’s Democrats who stand to gain a veto-proof majority over a Republican governor, if they can pick up just one more state Senate seat without losing one in the Assembly.