Congressman Roger Marshall defeats Kris Kobach in Kansas Republican Senate primary

Congressman Roger Marshall defeated Kris Kobach in the Kansas Republican race for U.S. Senate Tuesday, a victory driven by a party establishment that considered the OB-GYN from Great Bend the best chance of continuing 81 years of uninterrupted GOP control of the state’s Senate seats.

Marshall and Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state, fought bitterly in the primary, engaging in intense mudslinging over who was the true conservative and staunchest ally of President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press called the race for Marshall shortly after 9 p.m. According to the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office, Marshall had 39% of the vote to Kobach’s 26% with three-quarters of precincts reporting.

Bob Hamilton, a Kansas City area businessman who spent millions of his own wealth to blanket the airwaves with ads, had 19%.

“Keeping the Republican majority is at stake, that the Republican majority in this country may well go through Kansas and we are the backstop” Marshall told supporters Tuesday night.

Marshall took a call from Trump in front of supporters, putting him on speakerphone. Trump, who declined to endorse during the primary, congratulated Marshall on an “incredible race.”

Marshall, a second-term representative who represents the state’s vast 1st District, will face Democrat Barbara Bollier in the general election. Bollier, a former Republican and current state senator from the Johnson County community of Mission Hills, is poised to wage the most competitive Democratic challenge for Senate in Kansas in years.

“It’s clear to me that we need change in Washington, and we need to end the era of hyper-partisanship and division. People just want our elected leaders to work together to get things done. That was obvious before this pandemic, and it’s even clearer now,” Bollier said in a statement.

The election culminates a stunning fall for Kobach, an informal adviser to Trump who carved out a national reputation as an immigration hardliner. Kobach had staked his chances of electoral redemption on a primary victory after he lost the 2018 governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly.

But groups with ties to national Republicans spent millions urging voters to reject Kobach for fear that he would again lose to a Democrat if nominated. The effort resulted in brutal TV ads highlighting how he hadn’t been chosen for a position in the Trump administration and his campaign had paid a volunteer who posted on white nationalist websites.

“I voted for Marshall. I just like information that I had,” said John Bevan, an 85-year-old retired school administrator in Newton. “Kobach, I had questions about him … there’s a lot of publicity coming out saying that he couldn’t make Trump’s cabinet and other things, financial things, dealings that he had.”

Money flowed into the race on all sides. In the final eight days before the election, outside groups booked $2.5 million in pro-Marshall and anti-Kobach TV ads, according to Medium Buying, which tracks ad purchases. A pro-Kobach group bought $419,000 in air time while a “meddling” group running ads likely to prop up Kobach purchased $2.3 million in air time.

“Republican voters have chosen to put their best foot forward and given us the best chance to send a common sense conservative to the Senate,” said David Kensinger, a longtime Kansas Republican strategist.

The Senate Leadership Fund president Steven Law described the victory as the “first skirmish to stop Chuck Schumer’s brazen Senate power grab was fought tonight in Kansas” — a reference to TV ads run by a group linked to national Democrats designed to boost Kobach in the primary. The SLF spent $2.1 million supporting Marshall in the race.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Todd Young said he was “more confident than ever” the Kansas seat would remain in Republican hands.

Kobach, acknowledging defeat, immediately urged Republicans to back Marshall.

“We will hold this seat and I will do everything I can to make sure that happens for the Republican party,” Kobach said during his concession speech.

The general election will pit doctor against doctor as the coronavirus continues to grip Kansas and much of the nation. Both Marshall and Bollier feature their medical backgrounds prominently in their campaigns and are likely to lean on their credentials as they try to connect with voters this fall.

Marshall has talked about how he’s delivered thousands of babies and even tried, unsuccessfully, to be listed as “Doc Roger Marshall” on the ballot. Bollier, a retired anesthesiologist, originally pitched her slogan as “Washington is sick, send a doctor” before the pandemic emerged.

“Clearly, Dr. Marshall takes away the doctor card from Bollier, and she uses it all the time, on the (Kansas) Senate floor, the House floor, and in her commercials,” Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said in a statement in July.

Despite their shared profession, the two physicians have sharply split over their response to the coronavirus. Marshall has campaigned in-person throughout the state, shaking hands and often going maskless. Bollier has rarely left her home, instead hosting virtual campaign events over Zoom.

Still, Bollier assembled an extraordinary fundraising machine that shattered previous records for Democrats in Kansas. Bollier left the Republican party in 2018 over frustrations with Trump and GOP hostility toward LGBTQ rights. As a candidate, she has mostly sidestepped Trump.

“On the campaign trail, she has proven herself as a capable and compassionate leader who will always put Kansans first,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, a group that works to elect Democratic women.

National Republican groups, which rallied to Marshall’s side during the primary, are likely to again come to his aid in the fall. Some Republicans also predict Marshall will muster a stronger, more competitive campaign against Bollier than Kobach would have.

“It’s going to help Republicans up and down the ballot,” Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman, said. “I know Congressman Marshall will have the resources and invest those resources into our get out the vote campaign … to make sure not only Roger Marshall is elected but all of our candidates.”

The Kansas City Star’s Bryan Lowry and The Wichita Eagle’s Michael Stavola contributed reporting.

This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 8:58 PM.