Kelly: Only one Democrat in race can win over ‘extraordinarily moderate’ KS voters
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kelly said she supports Ethan Corson and believes only he can win.
- Kelly criticized Cindy Holscher and Curt Skoog as unlikely general election choices.
- An independent survey showed Holscher at 37%, Corson 10%, Skoog 7% with many undecided.
Undeterred by polling that shows Sen. Cindy Holscher’s anti-establishment message is resonating with likely Democratic voters, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has taken to the airwaves to make an impassioned case for her chosen successor.
“When a storm hits or a crisis lands on your desk, I know what that’s like because I’ve sat in the chair. It’s why I’m supporting Ethan Corson for governor,” Kelly says in a new commercial, part of the Corson campaign’s nearly $1 million television ad offensive ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.
Kelly looks into the camera and declares the Fairway attorney and former Obama Commerce Department official has the strength, judgment and backbone to continue her legacy.
She doesn’t have any kind words for the other two Democrats in the race.
The term-limited governor, whose personal popularity has remained high among Kansans throughout her nearly eight years in office, said in a phone interview that she believes only Corson — not Holscher or Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog — can win in November with the support of moderate Republicans and independent voters.
“If he’s not elected, I’m very concerned about the direction Kansas will go in,” Kelly said.
The message is a remarkable one coming from the state’s Democratic standard-bearer, who will likely be expected to unify left-leaning voters behind the party’s eventual nominee in the aftermath of a contentious primary. For now, at least, she appears intent on playing the role of power broker.
With the Democratic brand in crisis nationally, Kelly said it would be a mistake to assume that a string of victories for Democratic socialist candidates in New York and beyond means Kansas is ready to elect a governor who leans into progressive politics.
“Kansas is not New York. We’re not going to elect an extremist,” Kelly said. “We didn’t elect an extremist on the right wing in 2018 or 2022. We’re not going to elect an extremist on the left wing this year.”
Courting progressives
Holscher has styled herself as a populist outsider and a foil to Kelly. She’s the only Democrat in the race to criticize the Kansas City Chiefs’ Wyandotte County stadium deal and to call for a statewide data center moratorium — although she voted for the initial stadium incentive structure in 2024 and voted to give data center developers tax breaks in 2025.
Holscher says her evolving positions on both issues have been shaped by extensive conversations with Kansans who believe the state is too generous to rich corporations and billionaires.
In an independent survey of 1,000 likely Democratic voters last month, 37% of respondents either supported or leaned towards voting for Holscher, compared to 10% for Corson and 7% for Skoog, who joined the race roughly two weeks before the poll was conducted.
Kelly shrugged it off as a relatively inconsequential data point.
“Very few people are paying attention early on,” she said, pointing out that roughly half of respondents said they were undecided on who to vote for.
“One way it was presented, forty-six percent had not made up their mind,” Kelly said. “If it was presented another way, fifty-five percent had not made up their mind. So you have all of those people who are still in the chute waiting to decide who to vote for. That’s when you put the rush on with your ads.”
Holscher launched her own TV ad this week, which asserts that “working people are tired of being sold out by both parties.”
Kelly said Holscher’s strategy won’t play well in a general election because “Kansas business leaders, Kansans themselves, are extraordinarily moderate.”
“In some ways, by running against the establishment, you’re running against the very people you want to vote for you — that you need to have vote for you,” Kelly said.
“I don’t think there are four Kansans who believe that the Democrats have anything like an establishment here in the state of Kansas,” she added. “It’s just not realistic to think that way. We don’t. So, when I hear ‘establishment,’ I’m thinking about the Republican Party . . . and I’m thinking of the business community, which, that’s who I would think she’s targeting. And I don’t think an anti-business candidate has a shot at a general election in Kansas.”
At a stop in Wichita on Wednesday, Holscher pushed back against Kelly’s characterization, saying her policy priorities “align with mainstream Kansans.”
“There’s no way I’m a leftwing fanatic or whatever,” Holscher said. “I know that’s how Republicans are going to try to beat me and I know that’s how my opponents in the primary are going to try to beat me. You don’t win four elections in red districts by being far left. You just don’t.”
Electability in Kansas governor race
Skoog also drew Kelly’s ire when he entered the race on the day of the candidate filing deadline. She sharply criticized the late entry as “opportunistic” and “foolhardy.”
Skoog told The Star that he joined the fray because he disagrees with Kelly’s assessment of Corson as a candidate with broad appeal.
“I love Ethan. Ethan’s very talented,” Skoog said. “But he doesn’t connect with people if you go out and ask people out in the world. That’s why I’m in this race. People said, ‘The governor’s endorsed Ethan and he has not delivered for her.’”
Kelly did not respond to a follow-up question through a spokesperson about whether she plans to endorse the eventual Democratic nominee if it isn’t Corson.
