State Senate President Ty Masterson won the Republican nomination for Kansas governor after Donald Trump endorsed him. NBC News projected Masterson as the winner, sending him to the general election against the Democratic nominee.
Donald Trump backs Ty Masterson
Trump used a tele-rally last week to urge Kansans to vote early for Masterson. He called him a fighter, a winner and someone who has done a fantastic job throughout life, actually, and said, “We love each other, we love that state,” during the event.
That endorsement gave Masterson a direct boost in a race where Kansas has outnumbered registered Democrats nearly 2 to 1 among registered Republicans and has voted for Trump by double digits in each of the last three presidential elections. The result also puts the GOP in position to contest a governor’s office that Laura Kelly will leave because she is term-limited.
Kansas GOP primary field
Masterson emerged from a Republican primary field that included Scott Schwab, Vicki Schmidt, Philip Sarnecki and several others. He and his allies were outspent on the airwaves by his GOP opponents, but the endorsement and the primary result still carried him through to the fall race.
Democratic nominee ahead
Masterson will face the winner of the Democratic gubernatorial primary, which includes Cindy Holscher and Ethan Corson. Kansas is the GOP’s best opportunity to pick up a gubernatorial seat this fall, so the Republican nomination settles the party’s side of the matchup and leaves the general-election field to be decided on the Democratic side.
The open question now is the margin of Masterson’s primary victory. The winner’s level of support will show how much of the party he consolidated before the general election begins.
