With a little over two weeks to go, there are two Senate races in the “farm belt” part of the Midwest that are relatively close — Kansas and Iowa.

Kansas has been a pleasant surprise.  The Republican leadership in D.C. dumped a ton of money into the Republican primary to defeat Spawn of Satan Kris Kobach, and most people assumed that, having succeeded in getting Roger Marshall the nomination, the Republicans could go back to ignoring Kansas.  But a funny thing has happened.  Apparently, the divisions in the Republican Party haven’t healed.  While Trump looks likely to win Kansas, his numbers are rather low for a Republican in such a deep red state.  And if Trump only gets in the mid-50s, Roger Marshall can’t afford to bleed any support away.

Part of the problem for the Republicans is that Kansas is a geographically big state.  While about one-third of the state lives in close proximity to Kansas City, the other two thirds are pretty scattered.  And that means that candidates running their first state-wide race have to introduce themselves to a lot of people who have never heard about them before.  While both candidates face this problem, the Democratic candidate, Barbara Bollier had only minimal opposition in the primary which meant that she could run positive ads introducing herself as a former moderate Republican who only became a Democrat because the Kansas Republican Party had fallen off the far-right cliff.  Meanwhile, Marshall had to deal with a very nasty campaign in which many of his past sins were broadcast to the rest of the state for the first time.  In the end, Marshall won the primary because the party leadership told the voters that he was the only viable alternative to Kobach and that Kobach couldn’t win, not because Kansas voters liked Marshall. Continue Reading...