Decision 2018: Kansas Governor GOP Primary Poll

Kansas is a state where it is said has three parties: a Democratic party, a “moderate Republican” party, and a “conservative Republican” party. Therefore, the more interesting contests tend to take place within the August Republican primary (the last voter registration statistics are from 2016 and show Republicans with a 44-25% voter registration plurality).

There is an interesting context to this primary: Sam Brownback was elected to the United States Senate in 1996, then Governor in 2010. In Kansas, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a ticket, and Brownback chose state senator Jeff Colyer as his running mate. When Brownback (who had a narrow re-election in 2014) was appointed to be President Trump’s “Ambassador for International Religious Freedom” last year, Colyer became governor.

Six candidates are challenging Colyer in the primary, with his most substantial opponent (according to the polls) being Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who also has worked with the Trump Administration on President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity.

The poll can be found here, and the main takeaways are as follows: (1) Donald Trump remains moderately popular among Kansas Republicans, and (2) with the primary less than two weeks away, Kris Kobach is close to having a double-digit lead in the race over Jeff Colyer; other than those two candidates, only Jim Barnett is polling above 10%.