photo by: Nick Krug

Gov.-elect Laura Kelly waves to supporters during a watch party at the Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

TOPEKA – Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly will become the 48th governor of Kansas in January.

With 95 percent of the precincts reporting, unofficial results Tuesday night showed Kelly leading Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, 48-43 percent, a margin of about 51,000 votes, with independent candidate Greg Orman getting 6 percent.

Kelly had made her campaign a referendum on former Gov. Sam Brownback, whose controversial tax policies have been blamed for a fiscal crisis in the state that led to deep cuts in education and highway funding.

Kobach, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, had focused his campaign on issues of illegal immigration and a promise to return to the era of Brownback-style tax cuts, coupled with spending cuts throughout state government.

In her victory speech around 11 p.m., Kelly promised to bring a new tone of bipartisanship to the governor’s office.

“Today, Kansans voted for a change,” Kelly said to a crowded ballroom in a downtown Topeka hotel. “A change not only in the direction of our state, but a change in the tone of our state.”

She also vowed to pursue her goals of increasing funding for public schools and expanding Medicaid.

“It’s long past time to expand Medicaid,” Kelly said.

In 2017, both chambers of the Legislature passed a Medicaid expansion bill, but the House was unable to override Brownback’s veto of it.

It remains to be seen whether the same coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans can push such a bill through again.

Kelly’s margin of victory was wider than most polls had projected. But she appeared to have been buoyed by a large Democratic turnout in Johnson County, where fellow Democrat Sharice Davids won the 3rd District congressional race over incumbent Republican Kevin Yoder.

She also carried the urban centers of Sedgwick, Shawnee, Douglas and Wyandotte counties.

Budget woes made Kansas a cautionary example of how not to do trickle-down economics, and Kelly was visible in the successful and bipartisan effort in 2017 that reversed most of the Brownback tax cuts.

Kelly’s message resonated with even Republican voters such as Kimberli Evans, a 43-year-old federal employee from Topeka, who voted for the Democratic nominee. She said fair funding for public schools is one of her big concerns.

“I believe that the Brownback experiment did not work and needs to be reversed,” Evans said after casting her ballot.

Kobach had criticized the $600 million-a-year income tax increase and campaigned on shrinking government so that the state could resume cutting taxes.

Kobach brought some celebrity to the race, having built a national profile as an advocate of tough immigration policies and strict voter identification laws. He has advised Trump and served as vice chairman of Trump’s since-disbanded commission on voter fraud.

He narrowly ousted Gov. Jeff Colyer in the GOP primary in August after Trump defied a split among his advisers and tweeted an endorsement of Kobach. Trump carried the state easily in the 2016 presidential race and had a rally to help Kobach’s campaign in October. Donald Trump Jr. had two fundraising events for him.

The contrast between Kobach and Kelly was stark because Kelly not only portrayed Kansas as in financial recovery but also had a list of places where she’d like to bolster spending, including higher education, early childhood education and mental health services.

Kansas is considered a deep red state with party registration 44 percent Republican and 25 percent Democratic. But its dominant Republican Party sometimes splits between moderates and conservatives, leaving an opening for a Democrat to peel off disaffected GOP voters. In recent decades the state has alternated between Republican and Democratic governors.

That GOP rift emerged this year with the nomination of Kobach, who concentrated on motivating his conservative base rather than wooing moderate voters. Kobach said that if elected he would encourage immigrants living in the state illegally to leave Kansas.

Kelly said Kobach’s immigration policies would hurt the state’s economy, particularly in western Kansas, which depends on immigrant workers for the meatpacking industry.

Ellie Smith, a 24-year-old Democrat, stay-at-home mom and musician from Topeka, said Kobach’s positions on immigration “hurts my heart.”

“I believe that everybody belongs here,” she said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.