Posted on 07/08/2019 2:50:05 PM PDT by DoodleDawg
Kansas Republican Kris Kobach kicked off his campaign for the U.S. Senate Monday, sparking an immediate backlash from national Republicans who fear he could cost the party a seat it has held for eight decades.
The former Kansas secretary of state gathered supporters in Leavenworth Monday afternoon to officially announce his candidacy for the open Senate seat with a fiery speech that took aim at illegal immigration, the dangers of socialism and the unwillingness of Republican Party leaders to stand up for President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“President Trump needs a senator who will lead the charge for him,” Kobach said. “This is not a time for a quiet senator. It’s not a time for a senator who wants to make everybody happy and doesn’t want to take a stand. It’s not a time for a senator who is Republican-lite.”
Kobach’s campaign launch comes less than a year after he lost the 2018 race for governor despite Trump’s full-throated support in a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Dole supports Trump 100%.
I’ll admit I really don’t know anything about Kobach....hope KS comes up with a solid candidate.
a R who loses in Kansas? that’s pretty rare...
“Kansas has had 33 U.S. Senators: 28 Republicans, 3 Democrats, and 2 Populists. The last time a Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas was in 1932. Since 1960, the Republicans have won 102 of 129 Congressional elections and have won 69 of 90 statewide elections.”
The KS Governor’s race was a difficult race to begin with, from Kobach barely defeating Jeff Colyer, and a lot of RINOs went to the left-wing Demonrat. Add to that the party was dealing with high negatives from ex-Gov. Brownback. Even at that, Kelly still only got a 48% plurality.
This tends to be in keeping with KS electing either Demonrats or RINO Governors, and they tend to switch off every 8 years now. When Brownback won in 2010, that was the first time since 1964(!) that a center-right Republican won the Governorship. Federal races are a different story. Whomever the GOP nominates will likely win. The Demonrats have not won a Senate race in KS since 1932.
Boy you are on top of things :)
I try. ;-)
lol
While he probably has never been as bad as the Bushes, even I’m not sure how active he would be in his support—he turns 96 in two weeks.
I’m glad he supports Trump, but he’s no Trump, and Kansas is more in tune with what Dole was politically than it is with Trump. At best GOP as being content with defending the moral high ground while letting the Dems converting most of the country into moral low ground.
In a three person race where the third candidate was also a Democrtat. And the difficulties that dogged him in the governor's race are still there for the Senate race as well.
The Demonrats have not won a Senate race in KS since 1932.
If Kobach wins the nomination that could well change.
It takes a lot to accomplish that but Kobach has done that more than once.
What is a ‘national Republican’?
Who cares? Each state has its own process and pool to draw from. Allowing other states and talking heads to ‘groom’ and select their faves is no favor to the residents of that state or the country.
It’s bad enough states got screwed out of picking their own senators, this is BS.
Speak for yourself, Kansas. Don’t let other voices speak for you. Their visions and agenda are not in sync with yours.
Trump lost to Cruz in the 2016 primary. Both Trump and Cruz are Kobach Republicans.
...and carried the state by smaller margins than either McCain...
No. McCain only won Kansas by 15.4 points. Trump wont by 20.4 points.
or Romney did.
Romney won by 22.2 point or 1.8 points more than Trump but he didn't have to deal with a strong libertarian candidate.
Despite a lot of Dole-bashing, he was the Conservative Senator from Kansas (a lifetime rating of 91% from the ACU). Consider his seatmate was the RINO Nancy Kassebaum (48% Conservative lifetime rating). Her predecessor, who also served with Dole, Jim Pearson, was even more execrable. A left-winger Republican who was closer to Ted Kennedy (he got a 16% Conservative rating in his last full year in office, 1978). So it definitely has been worse before in KS.
Besides, it’s not fair to compare any GOP politician to Trump. There’s only one of him. Dole was still a pretty tough guy early on in his time. It was unfortunate he ran too much a gentlemanly race in 1996 against the human debris Clintoons. The last genuine war hero to run for that office, too, and be nominated (sorry, Lurch).
There’s little doubt that Trump will handily win Kansas in 2020. It is highly unlikely there will be enough ticket-splitting downballot for the Senate race for the Dems to prevail.
Also, the Dem field in the running is pretty piss-poor. Nancy Boyda appears the leader (at the moment) of declared candidates, and she was a fluke single-term member who ran a very sleazy guilt-by-association campaign attempting to link incumbent Jim Ryun with Mark Foley’s scandals way back in 2006. She couldn’t even hold the seat when Zero won in 2008, losing to Lynn Jenkins.
A curious thing that Trump and Brownback shook loose a lot of so-called “Moderates” (sic) infesting the KS GOP. Since the Demonrats have been historically a very weak party in the state, there were effectively two parties within the GOP. The regular Conservatives and the “Moderate” (hard-left) faction.
The “Moderates” would be Demonrats in almost any other state. Most stayed in the GOP for reasons of power, but in the past decade, they’ve been starting to finally exit the party and become the Demonrats they already are. As Brownback was the first Conservative GOP Governor in nearly 50 years, that was bad enough for them. With the rise of Trump (and Kobach), that sent many of them over the edge.
As with working against Kobach, they had similarly conspired in 2002 to stop another Conservative, Tim Shallenburger, who had won the GOP Gubernatorial nomination and backed the ultraleft Dem Kathleen Gilligan Sebelius (daughter of a Socialist Dem Governor of OH who was so bad that he managed to lose reelection to a Republican in the Watergate year of 1974). So Kobach was not the first victim of RINO backstabbers.
Rumor has it that Sebelius might come out to run against Kobach.
I wouldn’t be afraid to compare Reagan to Trump.
They aren’t politicians, but Thomas and Alito are ok in my books.
Yes, he was a war hero. Too bad he played the sacrificial lamb. And he is better than Willard or McCain. And probably all the Bushes.
And Ted Kennedy too.
“Whomever the GOP nominates will likely win.”
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I agree, and would like nothing better than for Kris Kobach (who is wicked smart, a proven conservative, and an actual constitutionalist) to be the next senator from KS; I supported him for governor last year, as well as for eachhof his previous runs.. But I must admit that the word “likely” in your quote scares me. We can’t risk six years of a Democrat holding that seat, and Kobach proved that he can lose a statewide race in KS. (Yes, the RAT nominee only got 48%, but Kobach only git 43%, and had Leftist Independent Orman not been on the ballot (and gotten 6.5%) it is likely that Kobach would have lost by 7% or 8%.) So I think that I’d prepare another conservative to run in the race.
Is killing babies okay in Kansas?
Johnson is trending moonbat. Trump barely carried it (barely 2.5% ahead of the Butcheress of Benghazi). Too many of those weasely “Moderate” Republicans turned Demonrat loons there. Even if Gilligan Sebelius runs, she’ll have all her baggage from the Zero regime (and as with Boyda, will not have run a winning race for office in 14 years).
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