ICYMI: Kansas GOP Chair Asks Two Republican Senate Candidates to Drop Out as GOP Panics Over Primary

Kansas GOP Grow More Worried About Losing Senate Seat After Another Strong Quarter for Bollier, Which One Republican Called “Extremely Shocking”

The Kansas Republican Party Chair formally requested two of the Republicans in their messy primary drop out as the party’s fear about losing the seat continues to grow. After another blockbuster fundraising quarter for Dr. Barbara Bollier — one of 10 Democrats to outraise Republicans in a GOP-held seat — Republicans are scrambling. 

The Kansas City Star reports that in separate letters to two candidates, Senate President Susan Wagle and former Johnson County Commissioner Dave Lindstrom, the Kansas GOP chair warned“continuing their campaigns will endanger the party’s ability to hold the seat in November after eight decades of dominance in Senate races.” An April PPP poll showed Bollier “in a dead heat” and leading by two points against GOP frontrunner Kris Kobach.

“This new reporting tells you exactly how worried the GOP is about Kansas – and they should be,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Dr. Barbara Bollier is running such a strong campaign in Kansas that the Republican Party is asking some of its own candidates to drop out because it doesn’t have confidence in its own field.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Kansas City Star: Kansas GOP chair asks Wagle and Lindstrom to drop out of Senate race for good of party

By Bryan Lowry

April 23, 2020

Key Points:

• 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.

• Kuckelman’s warning is an indirect but unmistakable reference to former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who lost to Democrat Laura Kelly in the 2018 race for governor after a historically close Republican primary that featured numerous candidates.

• Golden said the decision to ask the candidates to drop out was partly motivated by Bollier’s strong fundraising. The Johnson County Democrat, who left the Republican party in late 2018, raised nearly $2.4 million during the first three months of 2020, a record for candidates of either party in the GOP-leaning state.

• Wagle’s campaign released a fiery response that demonstrates long-standing tension between the party chair and the top Republican in the state Senate.

• Dave Owen, a former Kansas Republican Party chair working on Lindstrom’s campaign, was disturbed by the Kuckelman’s decision to send the letters.

• Kobach’s campaign did not immediately respond to the letters… Kobach, a mainstay of cable news, has consistently led the crowded field in polls. Marshall, who represents the same congressional district once held by the state’s two current senators, has usually been second.

Read the full report here. 

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