Why are Kansas GOP governor candidates taking the MAGA road? | Opinion
Ty Masterson and Philip Sarnecki are in a race to claim the title of Trumpiest candidate for Kansas governor this year. I realize this is primary season, with no meat too red, no hyperbole too hyper.
But is this the right fight for summer 2026?
First off, let me make it clear that I’m a terrible political prognosticator. I’ve consistently underestimated the power of Donald Trump’s unique appeal for more than a decade now. However, I wasn’t shocked that his promise-the-moon 2024 campaign — coupled with Elon Musk pouring vast amounts of money into the swing states and Joe Biden disastrously hurling Kamala Harris into the ring at the last minute — eked out a narrow victory. That was the tenor of the times.
Today, times don’t seem so swell for the president. His attempt to end the catastrophic Iran war he started is still a big question mark, with its temporary agreement actually kicking the can down the street for another 60 days. And though Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall agrees with the big boss that its provision letting Iran keep its ballistic missiles is only fair — “they have to be able to defend themselves,” Marshall said of the hardline mullahs still in charge there — some of Trump’s biggest GOP backers are now his harshest critics. Pushing once-MAGA stalwart Erick Erickson to call Trump’s deal “an American surrender” is quite a feat.
Meanwhile, the climbing costs of gasoline, groceries, fertilizer and more show few serious signs of easing, even if the Strait of Hormuz is supposedly back open for business (with cargo ships having to “pay for services” to pass in the near future, Iran says). Petroleum freight doesn’t flow immediately like water from your kitchen tap. But while Trump critics’ most dire predictions of $10 at the pump haven’t materialized, oil industry executives warned this month that our nation’s strategic reserves are being depleted, likely leading to higher fuel prices to come.
10 points underwater in rural America
So it isn’t a surprise that new polling shows Trump seriously underwater across the board — including by 10 points among rural voters, one of his most consistent blocs since the start of his political career. Turns out, people who live in the country are bitten by those rising gasoline and food prices, too — some to a greater degree than city dwellers.
Why, then, are Masterson (currently Kansas Senate president) and Sarnecki still fighting for the conductor’s seat on the Trump train? Even before he won the president’s endorsement, Masterson’s campaign announcement commercial featured four heroic images of Trump (along with three of its five bullet points taking aim at LGBT people). Sarnecki can’t claim the official presidential nod, but Trump’s favorite targets — abortion rights, wind energy, anything “woke” or not overtly Christian — are at the core of his appeal to voters. “President Donald Trump won Kansas in a landslide the last three elections,” his website reads, “but Republicans keep losing in Kansas.”
Do they? Last I checked, the GOP held supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature. They control the office of the attorney general, secretary of state and almost every other one statewide. If that counts as “losing,” I’m not sure how to peg it on the Democrats, who have earned their reputation for fecklessness in Topeka.
I simply question whether the Masterson and Sarnecki campaigns (like that of fellow openly MAGA candidate Charlotte O’Hara) are looking past the primary. Will Masterson’s social media team keep using the photo of him beaming alongside Trump in the Oval Office after Aug. 4 if he’s the party’s nominee? And while Sarnecki seems like a long shot, is his promise of continuing the Trump agenda what the voters really want?
Data Centers, Chiefs’ WyCo stadium
Because Americans’ priorities are turning away from big money interests lately. Trump is an unapologetic backer of the hyperscale data centers sprouting around the country — and Sarnecki has cannily plugged into the widespread public opposition to them, especially outside metropolitan areas. The massive subsidies Kansas offered the Kansas City Chiefs to relocate across the state line to Wyandotte County have drawn heavy fire from left and right — including from the Kansas Policy Institute, which was founded by a longtime Koch Industries executive.
Masterson’s ties to the Koch machine are deep and profound. Among his other duties, he’s director of GoCreate, “a Koch Collaborative” at Wichita State University, which nets him well into the six figures per year. O’Hara told KCMO Talk Radio’s Pete Mundo this month that wealth management and movie production company executive Sarnecki claimed Chiefs owner “Clark Hunt and (JE Dunn Construction CEO) Terry Dunn recruited him to run, two people knee deep in tax incentives” for that WyCo stadium deal. I can’t vouch for that, but I’ll be keeping my ears open for a rebuttal. Clearly, though, neither candidate is a hardscrabble man of the working class.
Republican talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh correctly proclaimed a decade ago that Trump is no conservative. His populist promises — health care for all, price controls, no foreign regime change wars — have always shared a lot more DNA with Bernie Sanders than Ronald Reagan. As the cost of living soars, jobs dry up and the White House focuses on UFC cage matches and painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, I’m not convinced Donald Trump is the right running mate on the path to the Kansas governor’s mansion.
Put a pin in this: I could well be wrong come November. A lot can happen in 4 1/2 months.
