As I have mentioned before, Kris Kobach was a year ahead of me in law school, and even in the rarified air of Yale Law School he stood out for his academic achievements, and girls absolutely swooned over him. I knew that he was a conservative (he was a fellow Federalist), but I did not know just how conservative he was.
When Kobach first ran for Congress, I thought that he could use that as a springboard to higher office and perhaps, eventually, the presidency. But he lost in the politically marginal, mostly suburban KS-03, which had been held by RINOs and Democrats for years. That set his aspirations back by a few years, but he stayed active in GOP politics, chaired the state oarty, abd had the presence of mind to run for Secretary of State in 2010, a good GOP year. He was reelected in 2014 (another good GOP year), and set his sights on the governorship. Throughout this period, he was a national leader on using state and local laws to discourage illegal immigration, and took very conservative positions on most issues. He was exactly the type of Republican that we wanted to become governor of Kansas and, someday, president.
But despite having the good fortune of having a liberal independent, who four years previously had been the Democrats’ choice for the U.S. Senate, running in the general election and taking votes away from the Democrat nominee, Kobach still lost handily. I think that it’s a travesty how so many Kansas Republicans believed media lies about him and turned their backs on him, but that’s what happened, and I don’t believe that the impression that Kansas voters have of Kobach has changed over the past two years. If Kobach had become the GOP Senate nominee, it would have given the Democrats a fairly good chance of winning their first U.S. Senate election in Kansas since 1932.
So when faced with a choice of Kobach or Congressman Roger Marshall (who is not a conservative leader but will continue to be a reliable vote in the GOP caucussolid conservative vote), I unhesitatingly supported Marshall, who will win the general without breaking a sweat. At this juncture, we cannot afford to give the Democrats for six years a seat that rightfully should be ours. I would have preferred someone more energetically conservative than Marshall, such as Secretary Pompeo, but Pompeo didn!t run, and there’s no use crying over spilled milk. Roger Marshall is fine, and he’ll be solid in the Senate.
Kris Koback would have given us 100% of what we would want in a U.S. senator, while Marshall only gives us like 90%-95% of what we would want, but if we lose the general election we’d get 0% of what we want. I, for one, am very happy that Marshall won the prinary; it’s one thing less about which to worry this November. And we will have a lot about which to worry this November.
I did ask you before, sorry I forgot. ;d
Yeah I think
“I’ll give you 85 bucks or we can flip a coin, heads you get $100, tails I kick you the balls once a week for the next 6 years.” is a decent analogy. I’ll take the $85, it’s just not with the risk.
If Marshall merely falls in line with the judges and is NOT a Minion Romney, then that’s all I expect. We desperately need to NOT lost safe seats. AZ is a potential loss, though I think McSally has picked up a little steam here in the past month.