People have Kansas wrong when it comes to politics. The myth is that it is a red conservative state, but that is not necessarily accurate. Kansans have a stubborn pioneer spirit that tends to land directly in the independent lane.
After all, Kansas has a Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, with former secretary of Health and Human Resources under President Barack Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, before her. The Third District elected a gay American Indian woman who is also a boxer.
One of the state’s longtime senators, Pat Robertson (R-KS), 83, finally decided to retire after serving since 1997. Kansans did not like their senator living in Alexandria, Virginia but claiming a reclining chair and rental house in Dodge City as his residence. It has been a long time since he voted for anything supporting Kansans over business interests.
Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) lost his gubernatorial bid to Kelly. He also wrote the election fraud laws for Kansas, Arizona, and Alabama. That caught Trump’s eye, because the president claimed three million fraudulent voters gave Secretary Hillary Clinton the popular vote in 2016.
POTUS brought Kobach to Washington. The former secretary of state went through 84 million votes from 22 states and found a whopping 14 cases of voter fraud, according to the western Kansas city paper, The Garden City Telegram.
University of Kansas assistant professor of political science Patrick Miller said that voter intimidation was a form of fraud:
‘The substantially bigger issue with voter fraud has been election fraud being perpetrated by election officials and party officials tampering with votes … It is not the rampant problem that the public believes that is there. Kris Kobach says it is. Donald Trump says it is. And the data just aren’t there to prove it. It’s a popular misconception that this is a massive problem.’
Residents of the Sunflower State were not fools. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) compared Kobach to the man character in Music Man Harold Hill:
‘Like Hill…Kobach comes to town with big ideas and a can-do attitude but leaves behind a trail of tears — huge legal bills and unworkable laws coupled with social turmoil.’
Kobach trailed the Democratic candidate by 10 percentage points. This Republican candidate may cost Republicans a Senate seat. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to go for the Senate seat. It appeared that the former Wichita representative had other ideas.
Kobach’s campaign manager Steve Drake said, according to The Wall Street Journal:
‘It’s laughable that anyone is taking seriously a poll on a hypothetical match-up conducted 18 months before the election and prior even to Secretary Kobach’s entry into the race.’
The poll indicated that a generic Democrat U.S. Senate candidate would win 44 percent to 36 percent. However, Drake claimed:
‘Those claimed favorable/unfavorable numbers are not consistent with other polls, which indicates that the sample of this June poll was not a representative sample.’
Drake released a statement to the Journal that read:
‘There are people from all over the country—Texas, Oregon, California, Florida—attending the fundraiser. It’s turning out to be quite a big event.’
Democratic Senate candidate Barry Grissom’s campaign staffer Jerid Kurtz was optimistic about the upcoming race. Drake said:
‘Barry Grissom is the strongest Democratic candidate to run for the U.S. Senate in Kansas in a generation, and he looks forward to a General Election race against extremist Kris Kobach.’
There has not been a Democratic Kansas senator since 1932, but the 52 percent to 42 percent numbers against Kobach indicate that may change.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
