Kansas GOP chair asks Wagle and Lindstrom to drop out of Senate race for good of party
Kansas GOP chair Mike Kuckelman sent letters Thursday to two Republican candidates asking them to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate for the good of the party.
In nearly identical April 23 letters to Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle and former Johnson County Commissioner Dave Lindstrom, Kuckelman cited poor fundraising and polling data to argue that the candidates lack a viable path to the Republican nomination to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts.
Kuckelman told the candidates that continuing their campaigns will endanger the party’s ability to hold the seat in November after eight decades of dominance in Senate races.
“I ask that you put the good of the Party — as well as the good of our state and country — ahead of all personal interests. If that is indeed your first priority, it is clear that the best course is to end your campaign. It is time to allow our Party to coalesce behind a candidate who will not only win, but will help Republicans down the ballot this November,” Kuckelman writes in the letters obtained by The Star.
“On the other hand, failure to suspend your campaign could negatively impact the outcome of the race — something we’ve seen in recent Kansas history — and could possibly cost Kansas Republicans the U.S. Senate seat.”
Kuckelman’s warning is an indirect but unmistakable reference to former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who lost to Democrat Laura Kelly in the 2018 race for governor after a historically close Republican primary that featured numerous candidates.
Kobach, a Republican from Lecompton, is running in the August Senate primary. National Democrats believe his nomination could create the opening for state Sen. Barbara Bollier to be the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Kansas since 1932.
Shannon Golden, the state party’s executive director, confirmed the authenticity of the letters, which were written on party letterhead. They followed phone conversations Kuckelman had with the candidates earlier this week.
She said the party is attempting to set up a clear choice for voters between Kobach and U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, a Republican who represents western Kansas, but denied the party was seeking to favor Marshall over Kobach.
“We’re less than four months away from our primary election,” said Golden, who worked for Wagle before taking her current job with the state party. “The time has come for these candidates to understand there’s no viable path for them to win this primary.”
Golden said the decision to ask the candidates to drop out was partly motivated by Bollier’s strong fundraising. The Johnson County Democrat, who left the Republican party in late 2018, raised nearly $2.4 million during the first three months of 2020, a record for candidates of either party in the GOP-leaning state.
“That number she produced last quarter was extremely shocking,” Golden said.
The letter to Wagle, the only woman to serve as state Senate president, said her polling has consistently hovered around 5 percent and noted that the Wichita Republican had roughly $515,000 cash on hand, more than half of which comes from a personal loan she made to the campaign.
Wagle’s campaign released a fiery response that demonstrates long-standing tension between the party chair and the top Republican in the state Senate.
“Private conversations with Mike Kuckelman over the past year have made it clear he’s been opposed to Susan’s campaign from the start, and today, he simply put that on paper. Others can speculate on his motives, but it may be as simple as he doesn’t support strong, pro-life conservative women,” said Wagle campaign spokesman Matt Beynon.
Beynon pointed to Wagle’s battles with Kelly over abortion and tax policy as proof of her conservative credentials. “She will win the Republican primary and she will defeat Barbara Bollier in November. Period,” he said.
The letter to Lindstrom, a former player for the Kansas City Chiefs, similarly pegged his support at about 5 percent and said he had about $266,000 cash on hand, also mostly from personal loans.
“The polling and the fundraising data clearly display that there is no reasonable path to victory, and not a deep enough well of support, for your campaign,” Kuckelman told both candidates in the letter.
Lindstrom said he had not yet seen the letter, but said he had a phone call with Kuckelman on Tuesday. He did not interpret the call as an attempt to force him out.
“He did talk to me about the campaign. He expressed an interest in knowing what my thoughts were in reaction to polling and fundraising and I thought I gave him some strong answers,” Lindstrom said.
“The polling information I have, it says that I can win,” Lindstrom said. “It does say that I have a challenge. No question… The challenge is most times when people talk about this race, they omit my name or it’s at the last paragraph.”
Lindstrom shared a page from an internal polling memo that said he could beat Marshall and Kobach if voters were informed of his strengths and their weaknesses.
But that could be difficult to achieve with his limited cash on hand.
“I think there’s a lot of shenanigans going on behind the scenes, but there are some people who are worried that Kansas (Republicans) can lose this seat,” said Lindstrom, who also expressed alarm at Bollier’s strong fundraising.
Dave Owen, a former Kansas Republican Party chair working on Lindstrom’s campaign, was disturbed by the Kuckelman’s decision to send the letters.
“This is the first time I have heard of a chairman, who is supposed to remain Neutral, try to force a qualified candidate out of the race. Who is Mike Kuckelman supporting?” Owen said in an email.
Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, called Kuckelman’s letters unusual but rational. A crowded primary likely benefits Kobach, a candidate with strong name recognition who has run statewide before but may be weaker in a general election.
“The chair is seeing what all attentive observers are seeing—that a fractured primary could well nominate Kobach, which would make the race a legit toss-up,” Loomis said in an email.
Kobach decried the chairman’s attempt to clear the field.
“Grassroots Republicans should be outraged. Our next Senator will be chosen by the people of Kansas — not the party elites. The Chairman’s attempted intervention into the GOP primary is inappropriate,” Kobach said in a statement.
Asked about the letters, Marshall’s campaign spokesman Eric Pahls said in a statement the campaign has maintained for months that it’s “a two-man race” between the congressman and Kobach.
“The last thing Kobach wants in a one-on-one race with Dr. Marshall,” Pahls said. “While we can’t control what others do, we can keep working harder than anyone.”
Kobach, a mainstay of cable news, has consistently led the crowded field in polls. Marshall, who represents the same congressional district once held by the state’s two current senators, has usually been second.
Marshall has more than $1.9 million cash on hand compared to Kobach’s $317,000, but he also faces opposition from the Club For Growth, a national conservative group that has pledged to spend more than $2 million in attack ads against the Kansas congressman.
Golden said the party has no preference between the two candidates.
Golden said the party did not send letters to three other candidates in the race: self-described Republican socialist Brian Matlock, Kansas Board of Education member Steve Roberts or businessman Bob Hamilton.
Hamilton, the founder of Bob Hamilton Plumbing, has put $2 million of his own money into his campaign as a loan after launching in late March. Golden cast doubt on the notion that Hamilton would be a major factor in a race with Kobach and Marshall.
“He entered the race late. His name ID is nonexistent outside of Johnson County,” Golden said.
The Hamilton campaign declined to comment on the state party’s efforts to influence the primary.
Kobach questioned why Kuckelman would demand Wagle drop out rather than Hamilton. He said Wagle has always been a loyal Republican and is doing better in polls than the newcomer.
“Why, then, would the Chairman demand that Wagle get out and Hamilton stay in?” Kobach said.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 2:22 PM.
