With Brownback gone, Colyer and Kobach jockey to become new face of Kansas GOP

Kris Kobach doesn’t walk into the room full of Republicans like a man ready to schmooze to become governor.

On this early morning after a late night, the pro-life breakfast at the Kansas GOP convention has drawn the reddest of the red to munch on eggs, bacon and pastries while people on stage preach that those waging war against abortion are fighting the good fight, that they’re following God because God is pro-life.

It’s at GOP tent-pole events like this where the new face of the party can start to emerge.

The Donald Trump Jr.-blessed Kobach has long been seen as the GOP frontrunner. But the man he wants to replace, Gov. Jeff Colyer, is blasting through this crowd intent on changing that.

Colyer has enough practice to know how to work a room like this. Kobach’s less the politician, even if he’s more overtly political. He’s slow to mingle. By the time Kobach has worked a few tables, Colyer has made his way, smiling and shaking hands, all the way to the front of the room.

Even though Kobach gets some time to chat with Todd Starnes, a Fox News personality in attendance, this is Colyer’s morning to shine.

Because Colyer is the governor, he gets a prime speech spot while Kobach is relegated to a table to the side of the stage. The governor gets to joke with U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, the dean of elected officials in Kansas, eliciting a vocal “Now, governor, cut that out!”

Colyer gets to embrace the ardent crowd by calling for a amendment to ensure that the Kansas Constitution doesn’t guarantee women the right to an abortion. The move is intended to protect the state’s abortion restrictions in the face of a court ruling that says the state constitution already guarantees a right to the procedure.

“On the issue of life, the people should have the final say,” Colyer says.

Like many of the others in the crowd, Kobach can do little more than watch.

After Brownback

There was a time not so long ago when this was Sam Brownback’s party.

But roughly a month removed from the former governor’s departure from Kansas, he seems long forgotten. And it isn’t clear who the Kansas GOP’s new standard bearer is, even as Colyer tries to carve out his place in the state’s politics.

Is it Kobach, the secretary of state, telegenic and well-known if disdained by some? Is it Colyer himself? Or will it be one of the other candidates at the event: previous nominee Jim Barnett, former state lawmaker Mark Hutton or Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer?

One it won’t be: Wichita businessman Wink Hartman, who attended the convention but ended his campaign on Wednesday.

Colyer came into the GOP convention last weekend buoyed by a poll that showed him and Kobach deadlocked, with 23 percent for Colyer and 21 percent for Kobach. And 2017 campaign finance reports showed that Colyer had far outraised Kobach, even after Trump Jr. held an event for Kobach’s campaign.

Kobach had been seen as the frontrunner if for nothing more than his national recognition and frequent presence on cable television, especially Fox News.

And even before the convention started, Kobach was taking gentle jabs.

A sign on the side of a Kansas highway on the way to Wichita showed a beaming Kobach billing himself as “the consistent conservative.”

“Bob (Dole) was a partisan Republican, but he got things done,” Roberts says. “I think Jeff probably embodies that right now, at least, to a certain degree simply because he’s doing it and that’s different from what we had in the past.”

And Kobach?

“Kris has a strong base,” Roberts says. “And he doesn’t shy away from conservative issues, and he leads them. I give him a lot of credit for being strong willed.”

Bob Beatty, a political scientist at Washburn University, citing a recent poll, said there is no face of the party at the moment.

“Those two are battling it out,” he said.

Colyer’s night

This is the heart of the party, the grassroots conservatives. Trying to find a moderate Republican here at the GOP convention is like trying to find an Obama supporter at a Donald Trump rally.

On this night, Friday, the diehards can come and go from each candidate’s campaign reception, eating and drinking to their heart’s delight.

Colyer’s the intimate type, hugging, laughing, smiling. Kobach’s less affectionate. He’ll stand and talk to folks, take photos. But the lawyer is less warm than the doctor, even on a night like this when followers of the Kansas GOP turn out to be wined and dined by the campaigns.

If Kobach’s still the frontrunner, you wouldn’t know it in the reception rooms of the Hyatt Regency in Wichita.

Colyer seems to have every advantage of the governor’s office and then some. When you walk up the stairs, his reception is the first for governor. The room’s full, the busiest on the floor, and it stays that way most of the night.

Colyer’s room has soft rock in the background. Key members of the Brownback political entourage smile broadly in the crowd.

“We’ve got one candidate out there that’s number one because of his positions, his stance, and I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that it’s so hard line that it has taken that edge, that softness away from him,” says Chiquita Coggs, a Republican who works as the executive director for the Kansas Board of Cosmetology and was embraced warmly by Colyer during the convention.

“But Gov. Colyer now is different,” she says. “And it does show. That humility. That willingness to listen. That willingness to find out what it is that will actually make something work.”

Kobach is next door, with fewer people, less fanfare.

A few months ago, Kobach was able to get the president’s oldest son to tout his campaign. But Colyer wins the day when the governor of Kentucky, scheduled to rally with the party later that night, swings by Colyer’s reception for grip-and-grins with Colyer by his side.

“I love this guy,” Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin says as he and Colyer dash away from the reception to Bevin’s convention speech.

Kobach has the national name. He has the media glare, the Fox News flair. But on weekends like this, he’s less the celebrity and more the other man.

But to Chuck Brodie, a 70-year-old Republican from Wichita, Kobach’s a leader.

If there’s a fire, Brodie says, Kobach will charge to put it out. But Brodie sees Colyer as the kind of guy who’d form a committee to figure out a way to silence the flames.

“I’m a lot less worried about Kobach, whether he needs big crowds or more money,” Brodie says. “Because the others don’t have name recognition. And it doesn’t matter how big their crowds are. And it doesn’t matter how much money they raise. When you go into the voting booth, you’re going to know who Kobach is and what he represents. You already do.”

But at one of the Kansas conservatives’ largest celebrations, Kobach doesn’t seem to get the same love as Colyer.

Early on in the evening, House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a moderate Republican, walked by Kobach’s reception. When a Kobach supporter tried to hand him a campaign sticker, Hineman rejected it without breaking stride.

Kobach’s stage

Late Saturday morning, Colyer and Kobach make the rounds to meetings of the different Kansas congressional districts.

The governor strikes notes of optimism and nostalgia.

“Kansas is a great state,” Colyer says with his newly minted lieutenant governor, Tracey Mann, by his side. “And this is a great Republican party. And I’m so honored that we’ve been leading the nation for the last 160 years. And as Kansas has been the real heart of America, the real soul of America. There are a lot of things for us to do and we’re going to need to work together over this next year.”

If Kobach can’t be the standard bearer of what already exists, he’s going to show how it’s not working. He talks about dissatisfaction, discontent and disarray.

This is the man who has said he thinks millions voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. Who thinks undocumented students shouldn’t get to pay in-state tuition. Who gets sued for his controversial views and policies, and wears it like a badge of conservative honor.

And he wants to tell you exactly how he feels.

Kobach calls the number of Republicans in the Kansas Legislature “superficial.” Being a red state, he says, is more than just filling the seats with GOP members.

“You would think that we Republicans should be celebrating our wonderful victory, mission accomplished, we’ve done all we need to do,” Kobach says. “But you know that’s not the real way you gauge success as a party. The true way to gauge success is, have you translated your party’s ideals into policy? Well, if you used that as your metric of success, we haven’t been very successful.”

The apex of the weekend is supposed to be the Saturday night finale, the GOP debate. It’s supposed to be Colyer vs. Kobach along with a handful of other Republican contenders.

But then comes word that Colyer is withdrawing from the debate. He’s ill. That leaves Kobach to play nice with the challengers tracking in the single digits.

The debate seat reserved for Colyer, with the name tag attached, is removed before the stage before the crowd fills in.

Linda Baker, a 68-year-old Republican from Wichita, says that at the moment she favors Colyer’s candidacy. But she’s disappointed by his no-show.

“He’s a wonderful man,” Baker says. “A very brave man and he’s very humble, so it’s hard for him to kind of toot his own horn.”

The debate absence gives Kobach room to rule the stage.

Taxes are too high, he tells the hundreds of Republicans in the crowd. He wants to roll back the state tax increase passed last year that essentially ended Brownback’s tax cuts and an earlier sales tax increase. He wants spending reigned in, “real cuts,” he says.

“If I’m challenged, I will stand and fight,” Kobach says to cheers.

We’re in a combative era, he says, both in Washington and in Topeka. The old style where everybody can be happy, shake hands and laugh is gone.

He promises full-throttled conservatism in Kansas and the crowd cheers.

“You have to have a fighter,” Kobach says. “And I’m going to lead the fight.”

When the debate ends, Christy McNally, a 64-year-old Republican and retired teacher, lags behind the crowd. She’s a self-described political junkie.

To her, Kobach won.

“I do not see Colyer as the face of the party,” she says. “I see him as an interim governor to be replaced. And I see Kobach is the face of the party as we know it because he’s been fighting for us constantly.”

Faceless for now

A few days later, Kobach and Colyer are back on their separate paths. Colyer takes to Twitter to tout how much his administration has done in a short time. Kobach is back on Fox News talking about illegal immigration.

With the debate on his mind, Hartman drops his run for governor and endorses Kobach.

Kobach may not be the face of the Republican party yet, but Hartman does see him as a torchbearer.

“Kris is the face of the Kansas conservative Republican party,” Hartman says. “And I really think that he will be the next governor.”

And for now, the Kansas GOP race for governor seems as close as it’s ever been.

The Wichita Eagle’s Dion Lefler contributed to this report.

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 5:30 AM with the headline "With Brownback gone, Colyer and Kobach jockey to become new face of Kansas GOP."