First-term incumbent Kansas Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly has an unpopular president headlining her party whose policies are blamed for a 40-year high in inflation, increasing crime, and chaos on the border.
Republican challenger, three-term Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, is tied to former Gov. Sam Brownback, who has a unique distinction in these divisive days in serving as a unifier who evokes universal criticism from all strata of the partisan spectrum.
Both have millstones yoked to their campaigns but Schmidt also must contend with a third-party sniper at his right flank in state Sen. Dennis Pyle (I-Hiawatha).
A former Republican, Pyle is running as an independent, and will likely sift away votes from Schmidt in a race declared a tossup by all forecasters with neither top candidates polling more than a few percentage points apart.
That means Pyle’s and Libertarian Seth Cordell’s presence on the ballot could be decisive in determining the Kelly-Schmidt winner.
A Nov. 1 Emerson College Polling survey showed Kelly leading by 3 percentage points over Schmidt, 46.4 percent to 43.1 percent. Pyle garnered 4.5 percent and Cordell registered 1 percent.
While support for Kelly and Schmidt remained static, Pyle’s grew in October by 50 percent with the conservative holding himself out as an alternative to Kelly’s alleged liberal leadership or Schmidt’s moderate stances.
American Center, a national Democratic group, has invested $92,000 in advertising to boost Pyle’s candidacy as the true conservative in the race.
The Kelly-Schmidt race is one of 36 gubernatorial elections nationwide this fall.
Kelly is among 22 Democratic governors seeking re-election, but the only trying to do so in a state that former President Donald Trump won in 2020, garnering 56 percent of the vote.
The race is rated a “toss-up” election by the Cook Political Report, Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales, and Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
Kelly served four terms, 14 years, in the state Senate representing Topeka, including as assistant minority leader and as minority whip, after a 16-year stint as Kansas Recreation and Park Association executive director.
In the 2018 gubernatorial race, she defeated former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach by 5 percentage points.
Kelly’s campaign reported to the Kansas Elections Division (KED) on Oct. 31 that it had raised more than $7.7 million, a record for a Kansas gubernatorial campaign and approximately double what Schmidt collected.
Kelly touts bipartisan achievements in campaign literature, claiming she “has brought together both parties to get things done for Kansas,” such as reducing taxes by $1 billion, attracting $14 billion in business investments, and retaining more than 48,000 jobs.
During a Sept. 10 debate with Schmidt, she discussed bipartisan achievements such as working with GOP-led legislature to balance the state budget, building a $1 billion rainy-day fund, fully funding public education, eliminating the state’s 6.5 percent grocery sales tax, securing a $4 billion Panasonic battery plant—the state’s largest-ever economic development project—and breaking ground on more than 1,000 infrastructure projects since 2019.
She bashed Schmidt for his association with “disastrous” budget and tax policies adopted under Brownback, claiming he “supported the agenda that rode us into the ditch.”
“Derek Schmidt stood by Brownback tax cuts to our schools,” she said. “He even went to court to keep those cuts in place.”
Schmidt, who served in the senate with Kelly before being elected attorney general three times, maintains he is the conservative leader deep red Kansas needs to ensure individual freedoms and the Constitution are protected.
His campaign has ripped Kelly for her administrative orders during the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in business and school closures, stating he would never impose such overreaching authority on Kansans.
Schmidt said spending under Kelly has surged and that she will continue to increase Kansans’ tax burden by endorsing Biden’s policies.
“We must not adopt government policies that try to turn Kansas into California,” Schmidt said during their Sept. 10 debate.
“Gov. Kelly is wrong in her philosophy. So many Kansans tell me they are anxious about our freedoms, our future and our commonsense values we thought we all shared.
“Many worry creeping big-government socialism is replacing the opportunity and self-sufficiency that motivated and empowered so many Kansas stories in years past.”
Schmidt during the campaign has doubled-down on his opposition to abortion, claiming the fact that Kansans on Aug. 2 shot down a proposed amendment eliminating access to abortion as a right by 165,000 votes, or by a 59-to-41 percent margin, doesn’t mean the state’s conservative voters support “unrestricted” access.
He said if elected governor, he would support the state’s legislature if it imposed restrictions on abortion because he said it is the role of state lawmakers to make such decisions in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s June repeal of Roe v. Wade.
“I’m Pro Life,” Schmidt said. “I supported the constitutional amendment. Kansas voters have decided, which does not mean the discussion has ended.”
