Manhattan ? Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is struggling to persuade Kansas voters that the bold tax cuts he championed are fueling an economic comeback.

Brownback points to the state’s low unemployment rate and tens of thousands of new private-sector jobs created since he became governor in January 2011. But his race against Democratic challenger Paul Davis remains close going into Tuesday’s election.

Federal statistics show that the rate of private-sector job growth in Kansas lagged behind the nation’s during Brownback’s first term — and has slowed since the first income tax cuts took effect in 2013. State credit ratings have been downgraded, and a budget shortfall is forecast for mid-2016.

The reformer’s reputation Brownback won in national conservative circles doesn’t impress some voters. Lisa Kruk, a 47-year-old business consultant and unaffiliated voter in Manhattan, cast a ballot last week for Davis. Afterward, she criticized Brownback’s for embracing “trickle-down” economics.

“He’s very well demonstrated that it doesn’t work,” she said.

At the governor’s urging, the Republican-dominated Legislature reduced personal income taxes to boost the economy — dropping its top rate 26 percent and exempting the owners of 191,000 businesses from income taxes altogether. Further cuts are promised, with the goal of eventually phasing out personal income taxes.

Brownback called it an experiment and, when signing the first round of legislation in 2012, predicted it would act like “a shot of adrenaline to the heart” of the economy. In his annual State of the State address in January, he declared that Kansas is leading an American renaissance.

But in after a recent GOP rally in Topeka, he counseled patience.

“It’s early,” he said. “Tax policy takes time.”

In his re-election campaign, Brownback has repeatedly pointed to the Kansas City metropolitan area. Federal statistics show that since the tax cuts took effect in 2013, the job growth on the Kansas side has outpaced the growth on the Missouri side most months, though Missouri has done better recently.

Kansas’ unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in December 2012 and dropped to 4.8 percent in September, both significantly below the national figure. During the same period, the state gained 24,000 private-sector jobs. And Kansas has gained 70,000 since December 2010, just before Brownback took office.

Brownback’s tax policies appeal to Jan Allison, a 72-year-old preschool teacher at Topeka Lutheran School, who calls herself “a Reagan person,” after the president who embraced arguments that cutting taxes boosts the economy enough to generate offsetting revenues. Brownback often invokes Ronald Reagan.

Allison said giving small-business owners a break allows them to hire more hire people, and that Brownback critics are panicking over short-term budget challenges.

“I think it takes time, but it works,” she said.

But the case isn’t closed with voters. Federal Bureau of Labor statistics show that while Kansas has gained private-sector jobs, the 6.6 percent growth from December 2010 through September is below the national rate of 8.8 percent.

Also, in 2011 and 2012, the annual private-sector job growth in both Kansas and the nation hovered at about 2.2 percent. After December 2012, the state’s annual growth rate has been 1.25 percent; the nation’s rate is close to 2.4 percent.

“We had a higher rate of job growth before the tax cuts went into effect,” Davis said after a recent campaign event, adding that he believes Brownback’s policies jeopardize future funding for education and other programs.

The latter argument resonated with Jill Pfannenstiel, a 25-year-old Manhattan elementary school classroom assistant who voted in advance for Davis.

“We definitely need a change,” she said.