Can Scott Schwab, a conservative living in reality, win as Kansas governor under Trump? | Opinion

And just like that, the race for Kansas governor is on.

Scott Schwab, the Kansas secretary of state, on Wednesday announced he is throwing his hat in the ring for the GOP nomination to replace Gov. Laura Kelly next year.

“We need to cut property taxes, ban China from buying land near our military bases, restore conservative values in Topeka, and so much more,” Schwab said in an early-morning social media post. “That’s why I’m running for Governor.”

It’s yet another test of what kind of party the Kansas GOP wants to be in the Second Trump Era.

Schwab, of course, has spent the last six years supervising Kansas elections — a job that put him square in the crosshairs of conspiracy-minded conservatives who have risen to prominence during Donald Trump’s ascendance. He has tried to walk a tricky balancing line, working both to tighten election security while at the same time fending off wild, false claims of rigged elections.

He’s a conservative. But — so far, at least — he hasn’t pandered to the worst of MAGAdom.

“Schwab is doing this dance that many Republicans have to do today,” Emporia State University political science professor Michael Smith noted in 2022.

His defense of the state’s elections earned him a primary challenge that year from Mike Brown, the former Johnson County commissioner who embraced the worst of those wild claims, and who later went on to win the chairmanship of the Kansas GOP.

Schwab won that primary race, and kept his job.

It was a sign that the state’s Republican voters still had one foot planted in reality. Will that still be the case in 2026, after two more years of Trump in the White House?

We’ll see.

In his announcement video, Schwab was careful to pay tribute to the president-elect. No surprise there — that will be a requirement of any GOP candidate who actually wants to win his party’s nomination.

“I believe Donald Trump is right,” he said in the video. “We need to stop China from buying farmland next to our military bases. It’s a matter of security.”

Actually, that’s a wildly overblown fear.

For the most part, though, Schwab still seems to have his feet planted in reality.

“Small towns are getting smaller” in Kansas, he said in the video. “Rural communities are falling further behind.” He touted his efforts as secretary of state to streamline business services and secure elections.

Absent from his announcement? Any scary talk about immigrants or transgender people.

Instead Schwab focused on the real challenges that Kansas faces, and the real things that Kansas government does to keep the state working.

The question here is whether that approach will last — or work — in next year’s GOP primary. There’s a danger Schwab could come across too nice or too boring for Republican voters used to elbow-throwing and entertainment from their candidates.

Because a couple of things are certain: Schwab will not be the only Republican to try to replace Kelly. (The guessing here is that we’ll see a few more announcements after the Kansas Legislature ends its 2025 session this spring.) And his rivals for the nomination will be more likely to lead with hot-button issues that animate Fox News viewers.

Make no mistake: The days when popular moderates like Bill Graves and Nancy Kassebaum ruled the Kansas GOP are over. Schwab isn’t that kind of Republican. He’s definitely a conservative.

Can he win as a reality-based conservative? We’re going to find out.

Joel Mathis is a regular Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle Opinion correspondent. Formerly a writer and editor at Kansas newspapers, he served nine years as a syndicated columnist.

This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 10:34 AM.