Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Chad Taylor’s campaign says you can forget about any rumors that he’s even remotely considering withdrawing from the race.

“He absolutely will not drop out,” Taylor’s campaign manager Brandon Naylor said by phone Friday.

Taylor won a close Democratic primary on Aug. 5 for the right to challenge three-term incumbent Republican Pat Roberts.

Political chatter that Taylor might – or at least should – consider dropping out has gained momentum in recent days, probably in no small part due to suggestions by independent candidate Greg Orman, who says he views himself as the only viable candidate to beat Roberts.

Earlier this week, the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling released a survey showing the general election race surprisingly close, with Roberts at 32 percent; Taylor at 25 percent; Orman at 23 percent; and Libertarian candidate Randall Batson at 3 percent. Another 17 percent said they are still undecided.

But in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups, Orman out-polled Roberts, 43-33 percent, while Taylor trailed the incumbent, 39-43 percent.

“As weak as a 32% standing is for an incumbent, that still gives him a pretty clear lead due to his opponents pretty much splitting the anti-Roberts vote evenly,” PPP’s analysts said. “But if one of them was to pull out Roberts would really be in trouble.”

The fact that the Kansas seat may be in play is loaded with national implications because the GOP has its hopes set on winning back control of the Senate. To do that, they need a net gain of six seats, but their game plan has never even remotely considered the idea that Roberts might be vulnerable.

The independent polling firm Rasmussen Reports — which showed Roberts up 44-40 percent over Taylor in a two-way race — now puts the Kansas seat race in the “toss-up” column, and the Cook Political Report calls it “leans Republican.”

Then Thursday night, Democrat Jim Sherow, who is running for Congress in the 1st District against incumbent Republican Tim Huelskamp, made headlines by announcing his endorsement of Orman.

All of that has unfolded in the days leading up to the Democratic Party’s big “Demofest” convention this weekend, the party’s big opportunity to showcase its candidates under one roof and collectively kick off their general election campaigns.

Naylor confirmed that Thursday night, Democratic Party executive director Jason Perkey went to visit Taylor to talk about Sherow’s announcement, but said there was no discussion whatsoever about Taylor bowing out of the race.

But for all the talk about what might happen in a two-way race, Taylor’s aides say the fact remains that it’s a four-way race, including Batson. And in that contest, they say, Taylor is within a handful of percentage points against a sitting three-term incumbent.