JoCo podcaster taken off Kansas governor candidate list after running mate drama
Doug Billings, an Olathe podcaster and the first candidate to officially file for next year’s Kansas governor’s race, has been removed from the Secretary of State’s candidate list.
SOS spokesperson Whitney Tempel confirmed the decision Friday afternoon, following a legal opinion from Attorney General Kris Kobach published earlier in the day.
The Star previously reported that the Republican candidate for governor has been accused by his former running mate, April McCoy, of defrauding a campaign supporter by soliciting a $2,700 donation for software and pocketing the money.
McCoy filed paperwork with the SOS office in July to have her name removed as Billings’ running mate. Election officials said they sought guidance from Kobach because there is no official procedure for handling a lieutenant governor candidate’s request to rescind their candidacy before the filing deadline.
“We conclude that when one member of the candidacy withdraws or dies after filing but before the filing deadline, the candidacy terminates,” Kobach wrote. “And while the other member may re-file as part of a new candidacy — and pay the full filing fee if he does — he cannot fill the vacancy in his original candidacy.”
He noted that under state law, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor “shall be nominated and elected jointly.”
“In other words, ‘voters must select a “team,”’ Kobach said.
Billings did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon about whether he plans to refile and continue his campaign. He previously said he would pick a new running mate.
If Billings chooses to re-file, he and his new lieutenant governor candidate will have to pay $2,840 in filing fees or circulate a nominating petition and collect voter signatures.
“As with filling a vacancy, the Legislature could have provided an avenue for allowing all or part of a filing fee to roll over to a new candidacy. But it did not,” Kobach wrote. “Accordingly, a new candidacy cannot receive any credit for a previous candidacy’s filing fee.”
Dispute over donation
The relationship between the running mates unraveled after McCoy learned that Billings had deposited a $2,700 check in his personal bank account rather than his campaign coffers.
Billings, 62, previously denied any wrongdoing in an interview with The Star, saying 77-year-old Joe Marvil Sr. of Olathe made the donation in support of his podcast, “The Right Side With Doug Billings.”
Marvil said he signed the check after an hours-long campaign staff cookout at McCoy’s house in Basehor, where a quote was presented for a software program that Billings said his campaign needed to compete in a crowded GOP primary field.
The Star reviewed a copy of the $2,700 check, dated May 13, 2025, which was made out to Doug Billings. The subject line reads “Software”.
The Star also reviewed a $2,700 quote from Minnesota-based Buzz360, LLC, issued to the Billings campaign on May 8 for subscriptions to “SwipeRed,” a software product that promises to boost candidates’ voter turnout by “up to 10 percentage points.”
Billings said that the software estimate was unfamiliar to him and that he never purchased the product. The Star has since reviewed text messages between Billings, former campaign manager Mike Nichols and former social media manager Amanda Pierce discussing the SwipeRed technology, which distributes campaign information to likely voters.
“If we get $2,700 to pay SwipeRed, we get all of that info plus free updates,” Nichols wrote on May 9. “Anybody who supports you have that kind of bucks at their disposal?”
“I’ll make some calls,” Billings responded.
Later in the text thread, Billings asked, “If someone loans us the $2,700, can the campaign pay them back?”
Billings’ former treasurer Joel Goedken said the candidate never told him Marvil had cut a check for the exact amount the campaign needed to purchase the software.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 3:41 PM.
