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The Kansas election was held on November 6, 2018, and the results are in! Who won the Kansas election?
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The Candidates
The election in Kansas was a hard-fought battle between the incumbent, Dan Sullivan, and his challenger, Lisa Dauscha. Dauscha was a former state senator who was campaigning on a platform of change. Sullivan was a popular governor who was seeking a second term.
Kris Kobach
Kris Kobach is the outgoing Secretary of State of Kansas. He is term-limited and could not run for re-election in 2018. Prior to becoming Secretary of State, Kobach was a lecturer at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and a private practice attorney. He ran for office as a Republican and was elected in 2010.
During his time as Secretary of State, Kobach championed some of the strictest voter ID laws in the country. He also supported laws that required proof of citizenship in order to register to vote and helped draft Arizona’s “Show me your papers” law, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
In Kobach’s bid for Governor, he ran on a platform of illegal immigration and tax cuts. He promised to build a wall along the Kansas-Missouri border and make Kansas a “sanctuary state for gun owners.” Kobach narrowly lost the election to Democrat Laura Kelly.
Laura Kelly
Democrat Laura Kelly won the Kansas election for governor, beating Republican Kris Kobach. Kelly is a former state senator who has been critical of Kobach’s hardline stance on immigration.
The Issues
The election in Kansas this year was close, but with a few hundred votes in it was decided that the Democrat Party would win by a small margin. The people of Kansas were deciding between two very different candidates on a wide variety of issues, so let’s break them down and see where each candidate fell.
Kobach’s Controversial Record
Kris Kobach is the Kansas Secretary of State, and he has held this position since 2011. He is a controversial figure, and his record has come under scrutiny in recent years.
Kobach was the co-author of Arizona’s “Papers Please” law, which required police to check the immigration status of people they stopped for other reasons. The law was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
He also wrote Kansas’ voter ID law, which was partially struck down by a federal court in 2016. The court said that the law violates the Voting Rights Act by making it harder for people to register to vote.
Kobach has been an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, and he served on Trump’s commission on election fraud. The commission was dissolved in January 2018 after it failed to find any evidence of widespread fraud.
Kelly’s Support for Education
Kelly’s support for education was one of the key issues in the Kansas election. The state has been facing a budget crisis, and many schools have been forced to make cuts. Kelly has promised to increase funding for education, and she has been endorsed by the Kansas National Education Association.
The Results
The race for the Kansas governorship was a close one, with the incumbent governor barely winning reelection. This was a closely-watched race, as the Kansas governorship is one of the few statewide offices held by a Democrat in a deep red state. Let’s take a look at the results.
Kobach Wins by a Narrow Margin
Kobach Wins by a Narrow Margin
Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, eked out a victory in the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday, surviving a close race against Gov. Jeff Colyer and fending off a challenge from a Trump-backed candidate, Josh Hawley.
Mr. Kobach, an ardent supporter of President Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, has long been a divisive figure in Kansas politics. He narrowly defeated Mr. Colyer, who was appointed governor last year when Sam Brownback resigned to become ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Mr. Hawley is the attorney general of Missouri.
With all precincts reporting, Mr. Kobach led Mr. Colyer by just 191 votes out of more than 313,000 cast, according to The Associated Press. That margin is likely to prompt a recount.
The close result may not be known for days: Under state law, mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday can be accepted if they arrive by Friday, and provisional ballots will also be counted if voters can provide evidence of their eligibility by then.
Kelly Concedes
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has conceded the race to Republican challenger Kris Kobach, who has promised to pursue an aggressive agenda on taxes, guns and abortion if elected.
Kelly made the announcement in a speech Tuesday night, saying she had called Kobach to congratulate him on his victory.
“I sincerely wish him well,” Kelly said. “I hope that he will govern in a way that brings us all together.”
The results of the election are not yet official, but Kobach is leading Kelly by a margin of more than 10 percentage points with all precincts reporting. Kobach has promised to sign a tax cut into law if elected, and has also indicated he would support stricter gun laws and abortion restrictions.
What’s Next?
The Kansas election was a big win for the Democrats. They took back the governorship and the state House of Representatives. What does this mean for the future of Kansas?
Kobach Will Be the Republican Nominee
Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, will be the Republican nominee for governor, after a close and bitter primary fight that tested the party’s allegiance to President Trump.
Mr. Kobach, a hard-line conservative who has been a close ally of Mr. Trump on issues like voter fraud and immigration, narrowly defeated Gov. Jeff Colyer, who had been endorsed by the state’s two senators, Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran. With all precincts reporting, Mr. Kobach led by 191 votes out of 316,000 cast, according to The Associated Press.
The race was too close to call on Tuesday night, and Mr. Colyer had refused to concede, saying he wanted all provisional ballots to be counted. But on Wednesday morning, after meeting with his advisers, Mr. Colyer announced that he would endorse Mr. Kobach in the general election.
In November, Mr. Kobach will face Laura Kelly, a state senator who easily won the Democratic primary. Ms. Kelly has been critical of Mr. Kobach’s positions on immigration and voting rights, and she is seen as a more moderate alternative in a state that has trended sharply to the right in recent years.
Kelly Will Run for Re-election in 2020
Republican U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia says she will run for re-election in 2020. Loeffler was appointed to the Senate in December by Governor Brian Kemp to fill the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson who resigned due to health concerns. Her appointment came under fire from President Donald Trump who supported another candidate for the seat, Congressman Doug Collins. In her first speech on the Senate floor, Loeffler said she was ” humbled and honored” to have been chosen by Kemp.
