Kansas Democratic Gov. Kelly launches new moderate PAC. Group may endorse Republicans
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is already facing skepticism from legislative leaders on both sides of aisle after the second term Democrat announced Monday she was launching a new political action committee that would endorse moderate candidates for Legislature, regardless of party affiliation.
Kelly redeployed a central theme of her reelection campaign by naming the group, the Middle of the Road PAC. The group will raise money in support of moderate candidates who support growing Kansas’ economy, cutting taxes for families and seniors and expanding Medicaid.
Though details of the PAC, and its role in the 2024 legislative contests, are sparse, it is already facing skepticism from Republicans over the weight of her endorsement and concern from Democrats that the governor’s support of moderate Republicans could get in the way of a long-sought goal of eliminating the GOP supermajority in the Legislature.
“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.”
The PAC builds on Kelly’s political persona of a centrist policymaker, willing to work across party lines. During her 2022 reelection campaign, she literally walked down the middle of a road for advertisements demonstrating that point.
Despite this, Kansas House Minority Leader Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat, said Democrats should be the beneficiaries of the majority of the money raised by the newly-founded PAC.
If money went to Republicans, Miller said, he would be concerned because he has struggled to find a Republican with a truly moderate voting record in Topeka.
“We need to break the supermajority and the way to do that is electing more Democrats, not electing Republicans,” Miller said.
Republicans in the Kansas House control 85 seats, one more than they need to override a veto. Kansas Senate Republicans hold 29 seats, two more than a two-thirds majority.
“The Republican House members are marching in lockstep with whatever the Republican leadership asks them to march,” Miller added.
Christopher Reeves, a former National Committeeman for the Kansas Democratic Party, said he expected Kelly’s PAC would be most likely to endorse Republicans in districts where Democrats have no candidate or are unlikely to be competitive.
The project, he said, could end up frustrating Democrats who are fundraising for the existing PACs designed to elect Democrats to the state House and Senate.
“If you’re being asked to donate, how many places can you donate and if you’re being asked to donate to the governor’s fund or to the House caucus, Senate caucus, who do you send your money to,” he said.
Reeves suggested the PAC could help Kelly ward off far right policies during the next Legislative session by threatening conservative lawmakers with a centrist primary opponent.
But Republican leadership in the Legislature is signaling they’d be unwilling to accept any candidate endorsed by Kelly’s PAC as a true member of the GOP.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, rejected the idea that Kelly’s policies are truly centrist saying in a statement she “seems more focused on her uber-liberal, out-of-state donors.” Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said he was confident Republicans would retain their supermajorities.
“Democrats forming an alliance with fake Republicans who couldn’t get elected as Democrats in their local areas is a Kansas tradition that dates back decades, so this is nothing new,” Masterson said. “Kansans do not support Joe Biden nor are they going to support Senate candidates who back his agenda, despite their attempt to masquerade as ‘moderates.’”
It’s unclear if any Republicans would accept an endorsement from Kelly’s PAC.
Sen. John Doll, a moderate Republican from Garden City who does not plan to run for reelection, said he would accept the PAC’s quiet support in a primary. But he said he would only take a public endorsement if a former Republican governor, like Bill Graves, was part of the PAC as well.
“The Republican candidate that you’re running against, if they were far right, they would certainly try to use that against you,” he said of an endorsement from a Democratic governor.
