Kansas Gov. Kelly’s plan to boost moderate Republicans in Topeka would likely backfire | Opinion

It’s never a good idea when Democrats try to pick their Republican opponents.

That was true back in 2020, when Democratic allies pushed Kris Kobach in the GOP’s U.S. Senate primary against Roger Marshall, hoping Kobach — a deeply flawed candidate — would be easier to pick off in the general election. (It didn’t work: Marshall won the primary and the Senate seat, and Kobach eventually became Kansas attorney general. And Marshall is about as far right as Kobach.)

It was also true in the following years, when Democrats across the country put their efforts into helping far-right Trumpist Republicans win their primaries against moderate opponents in congressional races, hoping those extremists would also be easier to beat in general elections.

And it is probably still true now that Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, has launched a new PAC to support centrist candidates for the Legislature — even if they’re Republican.

“I’ve always been middle-of-the-road,” Kelly said in a statement. “That’s how I’ve governed — by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to meet in the middle.”

Admittedly, what Kelly is trying to do is very different from the skullduggery her Democratic predecessors attempted to accomplish. They sought to elevate dangerous voices on the right for the sake of short-term wins on the left. That was always a foolish and cynical notion during a moment of crisis for American democracy.

The governor, meanwhile, is ostensibly trying to lower the political temperature a bit.

Theoretically, that’s not such a terrible idea. The GOP supermajorities in the statehouse are fairly conservative. But there’s tons of evidence that the Sunflower State is far more moderate than its “What’s The Matter With Kansas?” red reputation would suggest.

The overwhelming defeat of an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution is one of those data points. So is the fact that Kelly is currently the chief executive of Kansas. Indeed, despite the GOP’s dominance of the state, a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate — Sam Brownback in his first term — has won a majority of the vote just once in the last three decades.

Kansans have chosen moderate Democrats and Republicans the rest of the time.

That suggests that while conservative members of the Legislature might be popular — or at least victorious — in their own districts, they collectively might not represent the will of the voters so well. Kansans seem more interested in the real-world issues of Medicaid expansion and public education — and less obsessed with culture war topics like the supposed threat of the tiny minority of transgender people — than their representatives in Topeka.

So Kelly’s new PAC is a good idea, then, right?

Well, maybe not. The goal — electing a more moderate Kansas Legislature — is wise. The tactic? Not so much.

Why? Because support for the new PAC would make moderate GOP candidates ripe for attacks from their conservative opponents. It’s easy enough to imagine the mailers that will go out to every Republican-voting household: “My opponent is supported by Laura Kelly!” Conservatives could credibly make the case that a Democratic governor is trying to choose her party’s Republican opponents.

In a GOP primary — where firebrand conservatives are more likely to turn out the vote — that support would probably be the kiss of death for a moderate candidacy.

“The Republican candidate that you’re running against, if they were far right, they would certainly try to use that against you,” said state Sen. John Doll, a moderate Garden City Republican.

Kelly’s aim is noble. Kansans deserve to get a government that’s more representative of their moderate outlook than what conservative Republicans who control the Kansas Legislature give us. Her new PAC isn’t a good solution to that problem, but it’s an understandable attempt.

To get where she wants to go, though, is probably the work of years and decades. Kansas Dems will have to do the tough work of building their party, even in parts of the state where that task seems futile. (Indeed, they’re already thinking creatively.) Moderate Republicans will have to do the same within their own party.

But a Democratic governor backing Republican candidates? That probably won’t work.

This story was originally published August 9, 2023 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Kansas Gov. Kelly’s plan to boost moderate Republicans in Topeka would likely backfire | Opinion."