photo by: Peter Hancock

Kansas Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Nickerson, far left, speaks to Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, while Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, far right, works on drafting an amendment to a Senate resolution, Friday, June 24, 2016, at the Statehouse in Topeka.

Topeka ? A top Kansas Senate leader lost his seat in the state’s Republican primary Tuesday, as GOP moderates made the election a referendum on the state’s budget problems and education funding.

Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, of Nickerson, fell in his south-central Kansas district to Ed Berger, former president of Hutchinson Community College. Bruce’s defeat came amid a backlash against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies that appeared to spell trouble for conservatives.

“The way the state has been going, we have so many problems, and we need some changes to be made,” said Stanley Prichard, a 46-year-old manufacturing worker from Hutchinson, who voted for Berger in the Republican primary.

More than two dozen GOP legislators faced primary opponents, and most, like Bruce, were Brownback allies who continued to support his experiment in cutting state income taxes to stimulate the economy. Conservative Sens. Jeff Melcher, of Leawood, and Greg Smith, of Overland Park, also lost Republican primaries.

The voting occurred against the backdrop not only of the state’s fiscal woes but ongoing legal and political disputes over funding for public schools. The state Supreme Court could rule by the end of the year on whether the Legislature is shorting schools on their state aid by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since the GOP-dominated Legislature slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging to stimulate the economy. That’s created concerns among educators about future spending on schools, even as many Republicans see the $4 billion-plus a year the state now spends as generous.

Bruce was leaning in part on his record as a strong advocate of gun rights, having been the key backer of successful legislation to allow Kansans to carry concealed weapons without a state permit.

Some Republicans were sticking with Brownback and his allies.

Steve Brady, a 54-year-old Hutchinson business owner, said he voted for Bruce because he “is doing more positive things.”

“I agree with the direction that he has taken the state right now,” Brady said.

While small-government and socially conservative senators dealt with a political backlash, so did moderate GOP Sens. Carolyn McGinn, of Sedgwick, and Vicki Schmidt, of Topeka.

Some Brownback critics focused more on the Republican primary for House seats. Ousting conservatives would further their goal of building a governing coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats on key education and budget issues.

Nine of those House races were in Johnson County, the state’s most populous, where many residents have cherished their public schools for decades. Strong public schools encouraged families to move into its leafy and affluent subdivisions, and voters have regularly authorized bonds and tax increases to support them.

Key races there involved Reps. Rob Bruchman, of Leawood; Brett Hildabrand, of Shawnee, and Jerry Lunn, of Overland Park.

Democratic Rep. Ben Scott, of Topeka, lost his seat to a former state lawmaker and Topeka-area political veteran, Vic Miller.

Marsha Rogers, a 58-year-old Democratic voter from Alma who works as a health insurance counselor for seniors, said she is upset with the state’s budget problems, particularly because they have led to cuts in funding for services for the elderly.

“The representatives and senators we’ve got now have been there too long and have kind of lost touch with what Kansans really need,” she said.