Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) “is inching toward a Senate run as Kansas’ Republican-controlled legislature debates drawing her out of a seat,” Politico reports.
“Kansas legislators are scheduled to meet in a special session later this week to take up redistricting. But a sufficient number of members of the Kansas State House of Representatives have yet to offer their support to the effort, some of them criticizing the precedent mid-decade redistricting would set.”
Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) may run for Senate next year if her district is redrawn by Republicans, Punchbowl News reports.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) — two members of the group that negotiated the bipartisan infrastructure framework — will vote against it, Politico reports.
Both men are up for re-election in 2022.
A new GOP internal poll in Kansas finds Barbara Bollier (D) leading Roger Marshall (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 45% to 42%, the Sunflower State Journal reports.
The Kansas City Star reports on two internal polls showing the U.S. Senate race between Roger Marshall (R) and Barbara Bollier (D) is very close.
A poll done for Bollier gives her a 45% to 43% lead, while a poll done for Marshall has him ahead 43% to 39%.
Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) endorsed Barbara Bollier (D) for the Senate seat that she held for 18 years, the Kansas City Star reports.
This is the second time in two election cycles that Kassebaum has endorsed a Democrat in a statewide race, announcing her support for Laura Kelly (D) in the 2018 race for governor.
“Party operatives playing fast and loose with the facts is commonplace in campaign ads, but a recent TV spot in the Kansas Senate race is stretching the norms,” Inside Elections reports.
“A recent ad from Rep. Roger Marshall (R) is intended to paint Marshall’s opponent, state Sen. Barbara Bollier (D), as a typical left-wing politician… But the advertisement itself is highly misleading, taking Bollier’s own words out of context and making it seem as if she’s commenting on hot-button issues when in reality she is discussing unrelated topics.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Kansas finds Roger Marshall (R) leading Barbara Bollier (D) by just one point in the U.S. Senate race, 44% to 43%.
In the presidential race, Donald Trump leads Joe Biden, 50% to 43%.
Roger Marshall (R) has won the Kansas Senate Republican primary by defeating Kris Kobach (R), according to Decision Desk.
Marshall will face Barbara Bollier (D) in the general election.
Politico: “Republicans are about to learn if they have a serious problem in Kansas — and another major threat to their teetering Senate majority.”
“In Tuesday’s primary, GOP voters will decide between hard-line conservative Kris Kobach and Rep. Roger Marshall as their nominee for an open Senate seat. Democrats haven’t won a Senate race in Kansas in nearly a century. But both parties think Kobach as the nominee would put the race squarely on the map, stretching Republican resources thinner as they’re already spending to protect a half-dozen vulnerable incumbents.”
New York Times: “Mr. McConnell and other Senate Republican leaders have made urgent pleas to the president to block Mr. Kobach by endorsing one of his opponents, Representative Roger Marshall. But Mr. Trump has so far declined to do so, and his aides said they had no plans to change course. Compounding the frustration of Capitol Hill Republicans, White House aides have refused to tell Mr. Kobach, a longtime booster of Mr. Trump, to stop using the president’s imagery in his campaign materials.”
“With a number of incumbent Senate Republicans trailing in polls, and being out-raised by their Democratic rivals, they have little margin for error as they seek to protect their 53-47 majority. And because of Mr. Trump’s broad unpopularity, and a health crisis that has devastated the economy, even a deeply conservative state like Kansas, which has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since the 1930s, is no sure thing for Senate Republicans this year.”
“President Trump indicated to associates during a flight on Air Force One on Wednesday that he would not intervene in the US Senate Republican primary in Kansas despite the fears among top Republicans that the state could elect a nominee who will lose the seat and thus the Senate,” CNN reports.
“While the GOP establishment has long been alarmed by the prospect that conservative firebrand Kris Kobach could win the primary on Tuesday only to lose the general election in November, Trump has so far not endorsed its favored candidate, Republican Rep. Roger Marshall.”
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), who is retiring, officially endorsed Rep. Roger Marshall (R) in next month’s Kansas primary, the Kansas City Star reports.
His support comes as Marshall is locked in bitter race with rivals Kris Kobach (R) and Bob Hamilton (R).
“A mysterious new super PAC with links to Democrats released a TV ad on Wednesday meddling in next month’s Kansas Republican Senate primary,” Politico reports.
“The ad is engineered to drive conservative voters toward Kobach. A narrator in the ad calls Kobach ‘too conservative’ because he ‘won’t compromise’ on building President Trump’s border wall or on taking a harsher stance on relations with China. By contrast, the ad labels Marshall as a ‘phony politician’ who is ‘soft on Trump.'”
“Kansas Democrat Barbara Bollier raised more in a three-month period than any candidate in Kansas history for federal, state or local office,” the Kansas City Star reports.
“Bollier’s U.S. Senate campaign took $3.7 million in contributions from April through June, a quarterly record in the state.”
“An anonymous group with ties to Republicans has just emerged with the apparent aim of targeting Senate candidate Kris Kobach of Kansas,” CNN reports.
“Kobach is an anti-immigration firebrand and voter-fraud crusader whose primary campaign has sparked fears among GOP leaders that he could jeopardize a seat crucial to keeping control of the chamber.”
“On Christmas Eve 2008, court documents show, Assistant Barton County Attorney Carey Fleske approached a district court judge with a request: erase Roger Marshall’s conviction that fall for reckless driving and replace it with a lesser charge,” the Wichita Eagle reports.
“The judge agreed, turning a suspended jail sentence for the future Kansas Congressman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate into a slap on the wrist.”
“But Fleske was more than a prosecutor. He was also the son of Marshall’s business partner and neighbor.”
A new Civiqs poll in Kansas finds Barbara Bollier (D) in a dead heat in the U.S. Senate race against any Republican nominee.
Bollier leads Kris Kobach (R), 42% to 41%, trails Roger Marshall, 41% to 42%, and leads Bob Hamilton, 41% to 40%.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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