The campaign for the open Kansas Senatorial seat, to be vacated by the retirement of Pat Roberts (R-KA) in January, appears to feature of whiff of fear on the Republican side of the spectrum:
Kansas GOP chair Mike Kuckelman sent letters Thursday to two Republican candidates asking them to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate for the good of the party.
In nearly identical April 23 letters to Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle and former Johnson County Commissioner Dave Lindstrom, Kuckelman cited poor fundraising and polling data to argue that the candidates lack a viable path to the Republican nomination to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts.
Kuckelman told the candidates that continuing their campaigns will endanger the party’s ability to hold the seat in November after eight decades of dominance in Senate races.
“I ask that you put the good of the Party — as well as the good of our state and country — ahead of all personal interests. If that is indeed your first priority, it is clear that the best course is to end your campaign. It is time to allow our Party to coalesce behind a candidate who will not only win, but will help Republicans down the ballot this November,” Kuckelman writes in the letters obtained by The Star. [The Kansas City Star]
Kris Kobach, often mentioned on this blog and others, a rabid anti-immigration activist and Second Amendment absolutist, is the unnamed candidate in the Republican primary which is concerning Kuckelman. Kobach was the Republican nominee for the Governor’s seat in 2018, and lost to Democrat Laura Kelly in what was considered the safely Republican state.
I’m wondering this: Does Kuckelman see Kobach as a loser for having lost the 2018 election, even though he had previously won a Secretary of State election in 2010?
Does he see Kobach, a former chairman of the Kansas GOP, as too much of an extremist for Kansas?
Or is he looking at the fact that moderate Republicans endorsed Kelly in 2018, and might once again endorse, and vote for, a Democrat?
In any case, if the two other Republican candidates drop out, making the primary into a mano e mano bout between Kobach and current Rep Roger Marshall (R-KA), then it becomes a commentary on the makeup of the Kansas GOP. Are they concerned more with winning the seat or going with an ideological firebrand, even if the latter endangers their chances of retaining the Kansas seat?
The Kansas primary is currently scheduled for August 4.
