Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) “has captured the Republican nomination for governor after the tightest primary fight in Kansas history, edging out the state’s sitting governor,” the Kansas City Star reports.
“Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) announced his concession Tuesday night after he failed to narrow the gap with Kobach when provisional ballots in Johnson County were tallied.”
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) accused Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) of intentionally pushing a miscount of the number of ballots cast in the gubernatorial primary race in an interview with Fox News.
Said Colyer: “Secretary Kobach’s office was instructing counties not to count ballots that are in the mail, and those clearly have to be counted under Kansas law.”
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) publicly accused challenger Kris Kobach (R), the state’s top elections official, of giving county election officials information about the handling of yet-uncounted ballots “inconsistent with Kansas law,” the AP reports.
First Read: “This has been getting very ugly, particularly because Kobach has built such a reputation around his warnings of frequent voter fraud. What we can’t figure out: How does this end? Is there any situation in which there’s an agreed-upon nominee without lawsuits? How does either candidate feel comfortable conceding? And can the GOP get a Republican candidate in time to have a real campaign in a governors’ race that is very much competitive?”
“The party has to figure out how to fix this feud, but the president — who’s endorsed Kobach and helped elevate his national profile — isn’t exactly in a position to step in either.”
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Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) said “that he plans to recuse himself from the vote tally process in the face of pressure from Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) and mounting confusion over vote totals,” the Wichita Eagle reports.
“Kobach said that he would recuse himself in an interview with CNN hours after Colyer had sent a letter demanding that Kobach refrain from instructing county election officials on the counting of ballots in the primary race for governor on a day when the vote total narrowed to roughly 100 votes as multiple counties reported that vote totals were incorrect.”
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s (R) lead over Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) in the Republican primary has shrunk to only 91 votes after election officials discovered a mistake in the listing for one county’s results in the state’s tally of votes, the Kansas City Star reports.
Associated Press: “The lead is minuscule when compared with the 311,000 votes cast.”
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) said that he “has no plans to recuse himself from a recount process in the race for governor because any counting of ballots would take place at the county level,” the Kansas City Star reports.
Said Kobach: “The secretary of state’s office merely serves as a coordinating entity overseeing it all but not actually counting the votes.”
Kansas City Star: “No law requires Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) to recuse himself from a recount in the governor’s race, but legal and political experts say that he should to maintain trust in the election.”
“Republican legislative leaders said Wednesday morning that a recount is almost certain and could possibly take weeks.”
Wichita Eagle: “Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) and Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) remained effectively tied in the Kansas Republican race for governor early Wednesday, hours after Sen. Laura Kelly (D) won the Democratic contest.”
President Trump endorsed immigration hardliner Kris Kobach (R) for governor of Kansas, The Hill reports.
“Some Republicans preferred that Trump stay out of the race over concerns that the president’s endorsement could push Kobach through to victory, which they believe would give Democrats a chance to win a key race in a red state.”
Jonathan Swan: “Senior Republican officials have told me they’re holding their breath, hoping Trump won’t endorse hardliner Kris Kobach in Tuesday’s Kansas gubernatorial primary. Kobach is as far right as a Republican gets on immigration and voting rights, and Democrats view his potential victory as an opportunity to steal centrist voters.”
“A source close to Trump told me they thought the president had been convinced to hold off on supporting Kobach. But he added he couldn’t be confident, given that Trump is in Bedminster with a cell phone and plenty of Executive Time.”
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s (R) gubernatorial campaign “employs three men identified as members of a white nationalist group,” the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.
“Two GOP consultants in early July independently named the three men, all in their early 20s, as members of American Heritage Initiative, a splinter of Identity Evropa, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as as a campus-based white supremacy group that builds community from shared racial identity.”
Bob Keefer, who writes for the Eugene Weekly and lives in Oregon, writes that he is running for governor of Kansas, citing the state’s lack of restrictions on who can run for the office.
His campaign slogan: “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
The Kansas Secretary of State’s Office ruled that a dog cannot serve as the state’s governor despite the official filings by a dog’s owners, KWCH reports.
“While there is nothing specifically written that says a dog cannot run to lead the state, the secretary state’s office says man’s best friend is not capable of serving the responsibilities required of the governor.”
“I cannot point to a law that sets any qualifications to run for governor. So a dog has never tried to file — I don’t know what would happen if one tried to.”
— Kansas elections director Bryan Caskey, quoted by the Kansas City Star, on three teenagers filing to run for governor in 2018.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), who has championed some of the strictest voting laws in the nation, announced a campaign for governor, the Kansas City Star reports.
“Kobach, the architect of controversial election and immigration laws, advised President Donald Trump on immigration policy throughout the 2016 campaign and was appointed to serve as vice chairman of a new federal commission that will investigate the prevalence of voter fraud.”
A new Docking Institute of Public Affairs poll in Kansas shows only 18% of Kansans are satisfied with Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) performance in office, and 61% think his signature tax policies have either been a “failure” or a “tremendous failure.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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