On a big night for the Democratic Party in Congress, Kansas Democrats were fighting hard to hold on to the Kansas governor’s office for a third consecutive term.

Democrat Cindy Holscher had about 52% of the vote in her effort to replace two-term Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who was ineligible to seek re-election due to term limits. Holscher was besting Republican nominee Ty Masterson, who is seeking to move to the governor’s mansion from his seat as president of the Kansas Senate.

The Associated Press had not called the race as of 10 p.m., and about 16% of the vote remained to be counted.

Holscher, a state senator from Overland Park, ran a campaign that touted several issues, including cutting property taxes, making healthcare affordable and accessible, putting guardrails on data centers and fighting corruption.

Masterson, an Andover resident, has been president of the Kansas Senate since 2021 but has been a state senator since 2009. Masterson told the Journal-World prior to Tuesday’s election that his No. 1 priority is lowering property taxes, and that he would seek to change the Kansas Constitution to place a cap on future increases.

Masterson also said he wanted to make changes to the state’s education system to improve reading and math scores, and also wanted to more aggressively review reports of government fraud and waste.

Masterson received an early endorsement from President Donald Trump, and touted it frequently during the early part of his campaign. However Trump’s popularity in Kansas declined, according to polling, as fuel prices increased and tariffs and trade practices hurt the businesses of Kansas farmers and ranchers.

In the campaign’s closing weeks, Kelly — who originally endorsed Holscher’s opponent in the Democratic primary — began campaigning for Holscher with ads that attempted to tie Masterson to former Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who oversaw controversial cuts to the state’s budget.

The tight race comes in a state that President Trump won by 16 percentage points in 2024. A shift toward Democratic candidates, though, was showing up in other races on Tuesday.

Democrat Dinah Sykes held a narrow 49% to 47% lead over Republican Dan Hawkins in the race to become the state’s next Commissioner of Insurance, as of 10 p.m.

In the race for State Treasurer, Republican Steven Johnson had a larger lead of 50% to 46% over Democrat Juan Luengo, as of 10 p.m.