Immigration hardliner Kris Kobach leads Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer by 191 votes, with only provisional and mail-in ballots remaining to decide who gets the Republican nomination in the Kansas gubernatorial campaign.
With the final results coming in from Johnson County shortly before 8 a.m. today nearly 13 hours after voting ended Tuesday evening Kobach had 126,257 votes, compared to Colyers 126,066.
The razor-thin margin could be complicated once provisional and mail-in ballots are received.
This year marks the first time mail-in ballots can be counted as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday and delivered by Friday. In years past, mail-in ballots had to be received by Election Day.
The specter of a recount also could keep the final results unknown for several days after the election is certified next Tuesday.
Should the polarizing Kobach win the primary, some Republican operatives fear he could lose the governorship to Democrats this fall. The race could become further disrupted if Kansas City-area businessman Greg Orman makes it onto the November ballot. He submitted petitions Monday with more than 10,000 signatures for what could become the most serious independent run for Kansas governor in decades.
MEANWHILE, A veteran Kansas legislator won the Democratic primary for governor after stressing her Statehouse experience and fending off questions about her voting record.
State Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka defeated former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, former Kansas Agriculture Secretary Joshua Svaty and two other candidates Tuesday.
The 68-year-old Kelly has served 14 years in the Senate and is the top Democrat on the budget committee. She stressed those credentials in running and suggested that she was best able to fix problems created by Republican policies.
OPEN HOUSE SEAT
In the 2nd Congressional District of eastern Kansas, five-term Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins did not seek re-election, setting up both a seven-candidate scramble for the GOP nomination and an opportunity for Democrats to pick up an otherwise out-of-reach seat. Their nominee is former Kansas House Minority Leader Paul Davis, who narrowly lost the 2014 governors race.
The Republican field includes four state legislators and an ex-Kansas House speaker. But they werent as visible in the final weeks as Army veteran and political newcomer Steve Watkins, who won the race with help from television ads launched by a political action committee formed by his father.
TAKING ON YODER
Democrats are targeting Yoder because Hillary Clinton narrowly carried his 3rd Congressional District in the 2016 presidential election and Yoder won a closer-than-expected race against a relatively unknown Democrat.
Six Democrats were on the ballot, showcasing the debate within the party over how far left its candidates should go to tap the energy of liberal activists and opponents of President Donald Trump.
Sanders, the patriarch of the democratic socialist movement, and New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the movements rising star, campaigned for Brent Welder, a Kansas City, Kansas, labor attorney.
But Sharice Davids, another Kansas City, Kansas, attorney, attracted considerable attention as both a Native American and gay candidate with strong liberal credentials. And other Democrats were rallying behind Tom Niermann, a Prairie Village teacher, seen as more of a centrist.
A winner had not been declared by early today.
OTHER RACES FOR CONGRESS
In the 4th District in the Wichita area, civil rights attorney James Thompson defeated businesswoman Laura Lombard in the Democratic primary for the right to challenge Republican Rep. Ron Estes. Estes won a closer-than-expected special election in April 2017 against Thompson, and he won his Tuesday primary against a political novice who shares his name.
In the 1st District of western and central Kansas, freshman Rep. Roger Marshall defeated an unknown GOP primary challenger.
SECRETARY OF STATE
Kobach is running for governor, and five GOP candidates were running to replace him. Kansas House Speaker Pro Tem Scott Schwab won the contest over House Elections Committee Chairman Keith Esau and Craig McCullah, a former Kobach deputy.
Schwab suffered a tragedy in his family that received national attention when his son was killed in 2016 on a waterslide in Kansas City, Kansas. Schwab will face Democrat Brian McClendon, a former Google and Uber executive from Lawrence.
INSURANCE COMMISSIONER
Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer also is running for governor, and Assistant Commissioner Clark Shultz is hoping to replace him. But Shultz faces state Sen. Vicki Schmidt, of Topeka, chairwoman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, in the GOP primary. A winner had not been declared by early today.
The winner will face Democrat Nathaniel McLaughlin, a retired health industry executive from Kansas City, Kansas.
