Let’s do this by job title.
On one side of the Kansas gubernatorial gladiatorial arena you have four heavyweights: the secretary of state, the insurance commissioner, the Senate president and a former governor. On the other side you have — two state senators.
That’s how the governor’s race has shaped up, more than a year before anyone in either party casts a single ballot. Republicans have dispatched an array of high-powered officials. Democrats have sent — well, those two state senators. Yet I’m not comfortable saying the GOP has a glide path to Cedar Crest.
Here’s why. Back in 2018, Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach narrowly defeated Gov. Jeff Colyer in the primary and faced off against Democrat Laura Kelly in the general. Kelly won.
And guess what? She was a state senator.
Colyer has returned for another go-round on the Republican side. He faces Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who announced all the way back in January. Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and Senate President Ty Masterson have followed suit in the last couple of weeks.
As a group, these candidates appear formidable. Each one has a plausible theory of victory. Colyer actually did the job after former Gov. Sam Brownback decamped to serve as the country’s religious freedom ambassador in Trump’s first term. Schwab has built a solid foundation of sane conservatism. Schmidt has proved both moderate and overwhelmingly popular among voters. And Masterson, while not the cuddliest of the candidates, has proved brutally effective in his chamber, occasionally raising hackles among fellow Republicans.
(I acknowledge that others have entered the race as well — my intent here is to focus on the best-known candidates.)
Continue reading here: https://kansasreflector.com/2025/07/25/an-early-report-on-the-kansas-governors-race-heavyweight-republicans-and-low-key-democrats/