ADVOCACY
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE , THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME
General Election Report
Written By : Dan Murray , KAIA Lobbyist and Partner at Devine , Donley & Murray
Democrat Laura Kelly has won reelection over Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt . Senator Jerry Moran cruised to reelection in the United States Senate . Additionally , all four Congressional incumbents were easily reelected to their respective seats in the United States Congress . The Kansas House loses one Republican seat but still has a veto proof majority with 85 republicans winning . challenges for Schmidt and ultimately may have taken a fairly sizable portion of votes from Schmidt .
Moving forward , Kelly has pledged to continue to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans , which is a necessity given the solidly Republican legislature . It will be interesting to see where she is able to find common ground with the legislature , particularly the newly minted House .
As has been the case in recent years , the changing demographics and voting patterns in Johnson County proved to be one of the more interesting observations . Nationally , it appears that the “ Red Wave ” did not materialize . However , it does appear that Republicans will have the majority , albeit a narrow one , in the House while control of the Senate may not be determined for weeks .
Kansas Statewide Office Results
Governor . In one of the closely watched gubernatorial elections in the nation , Democrat Governor Laura Kelly beat Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt to be reelected governor . Governor Kelly was up a little more than 14,000 votes after all precincts reported on election night . There will still be provisional ballots and mailed ballots to tally ( at the time of this writing ), but the vote total is not expected to change drastically with Kelly winning 49 % of the vote and Schmidt carrying 48 % of the vote .
State Senator Dennis Pyle carried 2 % of the vote . As many speculated , Pyle ’ s entry into the race created campaign
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