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Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts announced Friday that he would not run for re-election in 2020, launching what is expected to be a competitive Republican primary for his seat. “I have had the honor and privilege of representing Kansas for 16 years in the House, 22 years so far in the Senate,” Roberts said at an event in Manhattan, Kansas, on Friday. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would become the longest serving member of Congress in Kansas history.” Roberts, who was first elected to the Senate in 1996 after serving in the House, said he would...

Democratic nominee Chad Taylor dropped out of the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas on Wednesday, an 11th hour move that could clear the way for his party to rally behind and independent candidate and potentially change the math in the battle for the Senate majority. Taylor, who raised little money and had not gained traction in the campaign, submitted a letter to the Kansas secretary of state's office that said he was withdrawing from the contest, without providing any further information. An e-mail to his spokesman seeking more information on why he bowed out was not immediately returned. The...

Let me summarize the Hill article: as of this moment, hastily-withdrawn Chad Taylor is back on the ballot for Kansas’s Senate race. Turns out that state law has very specific criteria for withdrawing from the ballot after the primary – like being dead, or being incapable to do the job. And if it’s the latter, you have to say so. Chad Taylor, in his withdrawal letter, did not. Better and better, even if Taylor is allowed to withdraw then the state Democratic party is obliged to put up a replacement. This puts Democrats in a definite bind. It would seem...

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts has shaken up his struggling re-election team in Kansas, moving aside a longtime confidante as campaign manager and getting help from a national operative in a race that’s suddenly a battleground in the fight for Senate control. The campaign overhaul comes after Roberts’ bruising primary fight and the stunning attempt by his Democratic challenger this week to cancel his candidacy in the face of a strong bid by an independent candidate. Roberts confirmed Friday that Leroy Towns – who the three-term Senator once described as his “alter ego” – has stepped down as executive campaign manager,...

The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered the state to remove U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Chad Taylor's name from the ballot

Oral argument in the Kansas Supreme Court has now completed in the case of Kobach v. Taylor, on the question whether Taylor’s name can be removed from the Kansas U.S. Senate ballot. The issue is especially important with incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts now trailing independent Greg Orman in recent polling and with the fate of the Senate potentially hanging in the balance. While it is always hazardous to predict outcomes from oral argument (because Justices sometimes ask rhetorical questions or minds change after argument), I think it is likely the Justices will quickly issue an order removing Taylor’s name...

Democrat Chad Taylor must stay on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday afternoon. Kobach said Taylor submitted a letter Wednesday to withdraw from the race but did not declare he was incapable of serving, which is also required. The Kansas Republican Party had questioned whether Taylor, the Shawnee County district attorney, could withdraw. Kansas law means “we now have no choice” but to put Taylor’s name on the ballot, Kobach told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “The law is the law.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article1504835.html#storylink=cpy

The legal battle over Democrats’ efforts to get their nominee off the ballot in the U.S. Senate race in Kansas heated up Wednesday, with a prominent party attorney from Washington helping and Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach moving again to thwart the attempt. Some Democrats last week nudged nominee Chad Taylor out of the race with three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, but Kobach has refused to remove Taylor’s name from the Nov. 4 ballot. Kobach, a conservative Republican who’s backing Roberts, said Taylor failed to comply with a state election law that limits when party nominees can withdraw. Taylor...

President Trump’s former immigration adviser and populist conservative Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is leading in the state’s latest gubernatorial race, a new poll reveals. The latest Emerson College Poll has Kobach leading the race by one percentage point, taking 37 percent while liberal Democrat Laura Kelly takes 36 percent of the vote. Independent candidate, Greg Orman, takes less than ten percent of the vote, while 15 percent of Kansans said they are still undecided as to whom they will vote for. Kobach is expecting a boost in the polls after this weekend when Trump flies to Kansas to...

Republicans in Kansas further splintered Tuesday as the last moderate member of the party to hold the governor’s office endorsed a Democrat for governor over Kris Kobach, the GOP nominee. In a statement, former Kansas governor Bill Graves said he planned to support state Sen. Laura Kelly in the November election. Kelly is running against Kobach and independent Greg Orman. “Laura Kelly is the only Democrat I have ever endorsed for public office,” Graves said in the statement. “And the reason I’m doing that now is because I believe so much is at stake in the state of Kansas. I...

Olathe businessman Greg Orman returns to Kansas’ political forefront Wednesday by formally launching an exploratory committee for an independent campaign for governor in a move certain to jolt the congested field of Republican and Democratic hopefuls. On Tuesday, The Topeka Capital-Journal confirmed Orman’s plan to submit required documents to the Secretary of State’s office and begin accepting campaign contributions for what is expected to be a compelling and expensive showdown for governor. “I would be shocked if he didn’t run. If Greg runs, I’m confident he’ll win,” said Jim Jonas, who managed Orman’s campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2014....

November 1, 2014 Kansas Republicans Take Strong Lead in Early Voting Ky Sisson 10/30/2014 8:00:00 PM - Ky Sisson It was a sad day last night in Kansas when the Kansas City Royals lost the World Series in Game 7. Today, the GOP in "The Sunflower State" have something to celebrate as early voting results show positive turnout from Republicans.  Of the 153,436 early votes cast so far this election 82,739 or 54% were cast by Republicans. In comparison only 47,468, or 31% were cast by Democrats. The remaining votes were cast by unaffiliated or libertarian voters. The blood red state of...

In at least two polling locations, voting machines are changing votes for Pat Roberts to votes for Greg Orman. The machines were located in Overland Park, Kansas. Both changed votes to Orman, but did not change votes from Orman to Roberts. According to a local report, voters who noticed that their votes were changed were allowed to vote again. The Johnson County Election Office confirmed that they were aware of the issue and were looking into the matter. They said "the voter was allowed to vote on another machine" and the broken machine, which they said was calibrated wrong, was...

Been waiting on the Democrat's October Surprise. Seems like racial slurs is all it is. But instead they got Jean Shaheen's involvement with Lois Learner on the IRS Scandal and a claim by VP Joe Biden that Greg Orman is with the Democrats.

Vice President Joe Biden blew Kansas independent Greg Orman's cover in a radio interview today. Orman hasn't stated which party he'll caucus with in the Senate--actively avoiding announcing whether he'll be with Republicans or Democrats--but Biden stated definitively that Orman "will be with us" if he's elected. Listen here:

WICHITA, Kan. -- It seems all eyes are on Kansas, especially in regard to the hotly contested U.S. Senate race between U.S. Senator Pat Roberts and challenger Greg Orman. In the hours leading into the election, Roberts said this is a potentially historic moment in American political history. A vote for him will assure what's best for the country, he said.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kans.) is in the fight for his political life. Current polls show him barely trailing his opponent, which would make Kansas look like a golden pickup opportunity for Senate Democrats, right?Not so much. In early September, Democrat Chad Taylor suddenly dropped out of the crowded Kansas Senate, leaving a two-man race between Roberts and Greg Orman, who insists that he’s totally an independent and not a partisan Democrat. Orman even swears that he has no idea who he’ll support for Senate Majority Leader if he wins the election next Tuesday. That’s how independent he is.But if Orman...

Another week, another poll showing the race between incumbent Republican Pat Roberts and Democrat-turned-Independent Greg Orman is too close to call - within the margin of error. Orman has maintained a small yet consistent lead recently but has only led by more than two points in a single poll. On Friday, Fox News released their latest poll of the Kansas race and found Orman up by one point. Roberts has done much to close what looked to be a sizable gap but the race has been plus or minus a few points throughout October. Fox finds 44% say they're for...

In the tight race between incumbent Republican Pat Roberts and "independent" candidate Greg Orman in Kansas, the Democrats are implicitly pro-Orman. The two-way race between Orman and Roberts has been close ever since Democrats pressured the official Democratic candidate to drop out of the race. But now, the Kansas Republican Party has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the Kansas Democratic Party for illegal "in-kind" contributions to the Orman campaign. Kansas Democrats have hung pro-Orman signs at official Democratic Party offices which, according to the GOP's complaint, is illegal: Parties have traditionally used the volunteer exemption for...

The polls this cycle have been cruel to Democrats. A number of surveys have given the president’s party undue hope that they could pull off the impossible on Election Day and retain control of the U.S. Senate. But, like Lucy van Pelt ripping the set football away from a rushing Charlie Brown at the very last minute, Democrats have been robbed of that intoxicating hope just as the buzz was getting good. After abandoning the party’s nominee as determined by the voters, Democrats were thrilled by the prospect that ruby red Kansas might elect a Democrat masquerading as an independent...