Democrat Cindy Holscher is elected Kansas’ next governor, extending her party’s wave of victories

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democrat Cindy Holscher has been elected Kansas’ next governor, fending off Republican Ty Masterson to keep the office in her party’s hands and extend a massive wave of Democratic victories across the country.

Democrats had already secured a majority of governorships in the U.S. for the first time in two decades, even prior to the narrow win in Kansas, where Holscher had already declared victory following Tuesday’s midterm elections. The Associated Press did not call the race until Thursday.

Holscher, a state senator, promised to halt new data centers and overcame a flood of money that Republicans poured behind Masterson, the president of the GOP-controlled state Senate. She will succeed outgoing Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who was term-limited.

“Kansans have sent a clear message that they want to keep our state moving forward,” Holscher said in a video posted online Tuesday, two days before the race was called. “The work of preparing to lead has already begun.”

Masterson remains the Kansas Senate’s top Republican leader. He promised that the Legislature, with the GOP in control of both chambers, would work to cut property taxes — Masterson’s biggest campaign promise — and focus on safer communities and better schools.

“The things we fought for are no less important today than they were yesterday,” Masterson said in a statement. “This was a hard election for people who share our vision, here and across the country. But I believe in this state and in the people who live here, and that hasn’t changed.”

Democrats won four statewide contests

The political tailwinds helping Holscher win the closest governor’s race since 1974 also pushed U.S. Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist church, to Democrats’ first victory in a Senate race in Kansas since 1932.

In another big victory for Kansas Democrats, Chris Mann ousted state Attorney General Kris Kobach, a champion of strict voter ID laws who served as vice chair of President Donald Trump’s commission on election fraud in 2017.

With Hamilton’s victory in the Senate race and the election of state Rep. K.C. Ohaebosim, of Wichita, as lieutenant governor on Holscher’s ticket — the first Black statewide elected official since 1887 — Democrats won four statewide contests in Kansas for the first time since 1958.

Masterson had reasons for optimism after emerging from a contentious primary in August with Trump’s endorsement. For 60 years, when a Kansas governor has retired or been term-limited, the other party’s nominee has won the next election. In fact, Kansas had never previously elected back-to-back Democratic governors.

The Republican Governors Association poured $19 million into television and digital advertising, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, and attacked Holscher as an extreme liberal. The two candidates’ fall fundraising was comparable, but Republicans outspent Democrats more than 3-to-1 overall.

Holscher also faced early resistance to her bid from Kelly, who had earlier backed another Democratic state senator and once suggested that Holscher could be too liberal to win in November. Kelly later endorsed Holscher and produced a video for her — though not until after she did a spot for Iowa’s new governor-elect, Rob Sand.

Holscher made a state moratorium on building new data centers for artificial intelligence a cornerstone of her campaign. She said people want limits on their energy and water use and want to make sure the centers create local jobs.

“It cuts across party lines,” she told reporters in Topeka late in the race. “The people are asking for reasonable things.”

A former manager for Sprint Corp., Holscher lives in the Kansas City, Kansas, suburbs in Johnson County that boomed after World War II. It’s the state’s most populous county, home to 23% of the state’s 2 million voters.

Johnson County has become increasingly Democratic since Trump’s first run for president in 2016. Holscher won a Kansas House seat that year and was elected to the Senate in 2020.

She captured more than 60% of Johnson County’s vote, offsetting Masterson’s big margins in solidly GOP rural areas. Hamilton, who also lives in Johnson County, took the same path to victory.