TOPEKA - Hotly contested primaries for governor and two congressional seats are expected to drive up voter turnout for the Aug. 7 primaries to a level the state hasn't seen in a nonpresidential year in at least 12 years, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday. Kobach said he expected 26 percent of registered voters in Kansas to cast ballots in the primary, which would be slightly higher than the ...
TOPEKA - Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday that he is not personally liable for paying more than $26,000 that a federal judge ordered Wednesday as part of a contempt of court citation. Instead, Kobach insisted, that cost was assessed against the secretary of state's office generally. And while the case and the contempt citation are being appealed, somebody else will occupy the secretary of ...
TOPEKA - Conservative Republicans, including some with backing from the Kansas Chamber's political action committee, appear aimed at retaking ground they lost in the 2016 elections by challenging moderates in the upcoming primaries on Tuesday. Conservatives suffered significant damage in 2016, especially in the House, where many lost their seats in the primaries to more moderate Republicans. Still more ...
TOPEKA – For a time, Steve Watkins appeared to be a rising star in Kansas Republican politics. A decorated military veteran and extreme sports enthusiast, he appeared to have all the credentials of a modern Republican candidate when he filed to run in the 2nd District congressional race. Watkins, 41, of Topeka, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in special operations forces in ...
Updated 6:20 p.m. TOPEKA – Willis “Wink” Hartman, the Wichita oil executive who is running as Republican gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach’s running mate, has loaned the Kobach campaign more than $1.5 million since March, according to campaign finance records released late Monday night. Those loans accounted for 91 percent of all the money the Kobach campaign took in during the period from Jan. 1 ...
TOPEKA — The Republican primary for governor in Kansas got a little more interesting over the weekend when Kris Kobach, the current secretary of state, released an internal poll showing him nine points ahead of incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer, while Colyer picked up the endorsement of former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. Kobach and Colyer are generally seen as the two front-runners in the race, based on early fundraising ...