Kelly wins Kansas Governor’s race

TOPEKA, KAN. — Laura Kelly, a Kansas Democrat has been voted in as the new Governor on Tuesday evening in a primarily red-leaning state. Kelly defeated (R) Kris Kobach and (i) Greg Orman on Tuesday night. Kobach called Kelly shortly after 10 p.m. to concede the race.

Kelly had been serving as a State Senator, while Kobach was serving as the Secretary of State. Republican Scott Schwab won the Secretary of State race over (D) Brian “BAM” McClendon.

Kelly received 489,337 (48%) of the votes, while Kobach received 443,346 (43%) and Orman came in with 66,163 (7%). (L) Jeff Caldwell (2%) and (i) Rick Kloos (1%) rounded out the government race field.

Laura Kelly entered a room full of applause and “Laura” chants from campaign staff, family and other supporters after receiving the call from Kobach saying that he had conceded.

Kobach had actually won all but nine counties, but those nine counties were where the majority of the voters were from. One of the major counties that had switched from pro-Republican to a pro-Democratic county was Johnson Co., a Kansas City suburb. Kelly won Johnson Co. by 43,000 votes in a county that had over 262,000 total votes.

“There will be a lot of talk around America about the blue wave, but I don’t believe that’s what’s happened here in Kansas,” Kelly said on Tuesday night. “What happened in Kansas was a wave of common sense, a wave of bipartisanship.”

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Other notes from Election Night

-(R) Roger Marshall defeated (D) Alan LaPolice to win the “Big 1st” Congressional District Seat in the House. Marshall dominated the race, winning by over 30% of the votes. This will be Marshall’s second consecutive term to serve in Washington D.C.

-(R) Steve Watkins defeated (D) Paul Davis in an extremely tight 2nd Congressional District for the U.S. House. Watkins received 124,895 (48%), while Davis received 120,421 (46%) of the votes

-LGBT Native American (D) Sharice Davids defeated (R) Kevin Yoder to win Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District Seat in the House. Davids becomes the first LGBT representative from the state of Kansas and is the first Native American woman to ever serve in Congress

-(R) Ron Estes defeated (D) James Thompson in the 4th Congressional District of the U.S. House with 60% of the votes

-(R) Derek Schmidt won the Attorney General spot with 59% of the votes over (D) Sarah Swain

-(R) Jake LaTurner won the State Treasurer spot with 58% of the votes over (D) Marci Francisco

-(R) Vicki Schmidt won the Commissioner of Insurance spot with 63% of the votes over (D) Nathaniel McLaughlin

-Finney County voted “YES” in favor of the following with 64% in favor…  Shall sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink in Finney County be allowed in public places without a requirement that any portion of their gross receipts be from the sales of food?