Is the Kansas GOP too conservative for Johnson County? What this election might say
A lot of text messages flew around Kansas on election night — very few as pointed as former Republican state Rep. Jan Kessinger’s.
“I just texted a friend of mine and said, ‘Now I get to tell GOP leadership I told you so,’” he said.
Kessinger had warned state and Johnson County Republican leaders that they would hand his District 20 House seat over to Democrats if they went after him in the August primary. They did, he lost, and the party Tuesday handed the seat to Democrat Mari-Lynn Poskin. She notched a 2-point win over Jane Dirks, the conservative who beat Kessinger in the Republican primary.
Kessinger, who lives in Overland Park, says he was targeted by his own party for just being too moderate.
“I think it’s indicative that the Republican Party just goes too far right and doesn’t represent the district,” he said Tuesday night. “We really have lost so many moderate Republicans. I certainly was the last moderate Republican in the House in Johnson County. And John Skubal was the last moderate Republican in the Senate out of Johnson County. And we’re both gone.”
Skubal, also a Republican from Overland Park, lost his primary race to state Rep. Kellie Warren.
“Is there a message being sent tonight — that Johnson County, Kansas, or the United States wants us to quit being so extreme and move back to the center?” Kessinger said. “All the Republican Party seems to be doing is eating its own. This is no way for us to survive.”
It certainly looks that way, at least on the surface. Dirks is much more conservative on abortion, which is one reason Kessinger was targeted in the primary after he voted against the Republican-led effort to amend the state constitution to shore up lawmakers’ ability to regulate the practice.
Yet, if there was a message sent Tuesday in Johnson County, it was a mixed one. After all, Warren — the conservative who defeated Skubal in the primary — handily won her race against Democrat Joy Koesten. Maybe her Senate district is just more conservative than Kessinger’s House district.
And maybe there’s a difference in the candidates: Dirks, who is a lovely person, frankly wasn’t the most polished candidate.
Still, there’s no doubt that Johnson County is a different place politically than much of Kansas. It’s much more purple and has been the site of many of the Democratic Party’s inroads in recent years.
Kansas Republican Party Chairman Mike Kuckelman knows it.
“We’ve got work to do in Johnson County,” he said Tuesday night. “When I travel throughout Kansas, I realize Johnson County is an anomaly. Kansas is a Republican state. As Republican Party chair, I want to engage disgruntled Republicans in Johnson County and bring them back in the Republican tent. There are Johnson County residents voting out of frustration as opposed to voting in support of the Democrat Party and its socialism-laced platform.”
Kansas Republicans had a pretty good night Tuesday, mostly by holding their ground in the U.S. Senate, three U.S. House seats and, it appears, in the Legislature. Even a handful of candidates tied to the infamous (though not in my mind) former Gov. Sam Brownback won their legislative races.
But the Republicans’ cause took some hits in Johnson County Tuesday. Besides Kessinger’s seat, they lost retiring Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning’s seat to Democratic state Rep. Cindy Holscher. And though he waged a fierce battle, Rashard Young, a promising young Black Republican newcomer, fell just four votes short of capturing Holscher’s House seat.
Though technically a nonpartisan race, conservative Republican Johnson County Commissioner Mike Brown was turned out of office.
As someone who supports traditional Republican positions, I find favor with many of the conservatives’ platforms — especially the pro-life one. And I like the additions of quality GOP conservatives Kellie Warren and Beverly Gossage to the state Senate. But like the lottery says, you can’t win if you don’t play, and playing in Johnson County these days requires some amount of moderation.
Kessinger, who says he’s not changing parties, but will try to change the one he’s in, will be commiserating with fellow Republican moderates in a virtual meeting Wednesday evening on how to restore some moderation to the caucus.
If they want to stop losing ground in the key county of Johnson, party leaders should probably commiserate with them.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
