Tuesday’s Kansas primary election results have provided some surprises with one Republican Congressman being sent home.
First term Congressman Steve Watkins lost the Republican primary in the 2nd District to Kansas State Treasurer Jake LaTurner.
July surprise may have impacted Watkins’ loss
Watkins
Watkins was charged in July with unlawful advance voting and failing to notify the DMV of a change of address. The Congressman had voted in the wrong precinct and says it was an honest mistake. He claimed the incident, which is not uncommon, was used as a political weapon against him.
Watkins reportedly registered a PO Box as his home address for the 2019 municipal election and allegedly voted in the wrong city council district.
He is the sixth incumbent nationwide to lose their bid for reelection this cycle.
Jake LaTurner
Jake LaTurner will now face off against Michelle De La Isla, the Democrat mayor of Topeka, in November.
In 2018 Watkins won his first term in a squeaker with a one-point margin of victory. The House race is rated as “Lean Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Political odds favor LaTurner over De La Isla who has overseen a spike in crime in Topeka.
Roger Marshal beats Kobach
In the race for the U.S. Senate, Congressman Roger Marshall won the GOP primary to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts, who endorsed him.
Roger Marshall. Photo: Facebook.
Marshall faced former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. In the past several weeks, the race tightened between the two after a super PAC with links to Democrats spent $5 million boosting Kobach and slamming Marshall, according to Politico.
Marshall’s victory comforts Republicans who believed a Kobach victory would be easy game for a Democrat win in the general election in November. Those fears were based in part on the last Kobach-Democrat matchup in 2018 when he lost the governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly.
Marshall, who represents Kansas’s 1st Congressional District, was endorsed by Roberts and has the support by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Kansans for Life.
Marshall will go on to compete against extreme liberal Democrat Barbara Bollier, who won her primary Tuesday evening. Bollier is a state senator who left the Republican Party in 2018. She has earned the scorn of many in the faith community after she made disparaging remarks about Catholics and others from the Kansas Senate floor.
Amanda Adkins will face Sharice Davids
In Kansas’s 3rd Congressional district, a reliable Republican Party name upset the favorite to win.
Adkins
Amanda Adkins won the GOP House primary and becomes a strong challenger to Democrat Rep. Sharice Davids.
Adkins overcame other well-known Republican primary candidates including Adrienne Foster – the affable former council member and mayor of Roeland Park.
Adkins, who is well known and respected, served as state Republican chairwoman from 2009 to 2013. She’s also an executive at information technology company Cerner Corp. She’ll face Davids, who previously flipped the seat held by former Rep. Kevin Yoder. Davids, who has voted almost 100% with Nancy Pelosi, has kept a low profile in the district. Her 2018 victory surprised many especially because records indicated she was not actually a resident of the state. The Kansas City Star had made her election a priority and Republicans accused the newspaper of biased journalism which favored Davids.
The district is rated as “Lean Democratic” by the Cook Political Report but with Davids now facing a strong female candidate, the race is expected to tighten. Republicans have said that Kansans in the third district should not be surprised if the race flips back to Republican control.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice