Kansas governor's race might be a test for Trumpism
Editors note: Mary Sanchez is filling in for Mr. Page while he is away.
Recent days have me wondering what Kansas' fifth governor -- James Madison Harvey -- would say about the pickle the state find itself in now.
Harvey, a Republican, is my relative by marriage. He married Charlotte Cutter, whose sister is my great grandmother.
To the inevitable reader who will doubt that someone with the last name of Sanchez -- read: a foreigner -- could be related to the fifth governor of Kansas, consider: Like most humans, I had two parents. And my mother's side is steeped in the fascinating history of the land that is Kansas, dating from when it was merely a territory.
So I'm bracing for the almost inevitable mischaracterizations of Kansas and the political motivations of its inhabitants.
The upcoming general election of Gov. Harvey's next successor will draw national and maybe even international attention. You see, the race (along with races for two U.S. House seats) may well shape up as a test of Trumpism.
The Republican candidate for governor is Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an anti-immigrant warrior of national repute and a favored associate of President Donald Trump. In the state Republican primary Aug. 7, Kobach narrowly defeated the sitting governor, Jeff Colyer. A day before the election, Trump tweeted his support for Kobach, a fact that played a definite role in the close race, which went down to provisional ballot counting.
Kobach's renown as an immigrant-baiter has not translated into unconditional esteem, even among the people who generally fall for that song and dance. He's the guy who all but bankrupted many a small town that took his advice and passed sweeping anti-immigrant laws that later couldn't stand expensive constitutional challenges. More recently, he was admonished in federal court for how he undercut thousands of Kansans' access to the vote with harebrained changes to voter registration rules.
Kobach is signaling that he will go full MAGA in his campaign against Democrat nominee, state Sen. Laura Kelly. And why not? Trump's megaphone will be behind him, and the president's unquestioning base is not numerically insignificant in Kansas.
And yet Kobach's victory is not assured. The state is still reeling from the recent governorship of conservative ideologue Sam Brownback, whose tenure in office was a fiscal and economic train wreck for the state.
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