By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â Republican Rep. Roger Marshall won an open Senate seat in Kansas on Tuesday in a tougher-than-expected race that saw his Democratic opponent raise far more campaign cash than he did.
Marshall, who has represented western and central Kansas in Congress for two terms, prevailed over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier. After a tough campaign, he struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech, saying his prayer was âfor healing.â
âWeâre always Kansans first. Weâre Americans first,â Marshall said. âWe will fight to end the divisions.â
Marshall entered the fall campaign with the GOPâs traditional advantages in a state that tends to vote for conservatives. But Bollier excited fellow Democrats because her campaign was able to raise more than $25 million and set a Kansas record that Marshall couldnât match.
In a concession statement, Bollier said, âRemember, this race was never âsupposedâ to be competitive at all.â
âOf course, this wasnât the finale we hoped for,â she said. âBut at a time of deep national cynicism â when faith in our democratic institutions hangs by a thread â I consider it a sacred, patriotic duty to accept tonightâs outcome.â
Republicans havenât lost a Senate race in Kansas since 1932. Marshall will replace retiring four-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee and didnât seek reelection.
The race for Robertsâ seat was the most expensive in Kansas history. Spending on advertising by outside groups topped $41 million, with three-quarters of it coming from the Senate Leadership Fund aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP groups to boost Marshallâs campaign. It also was the Democratsâ best shot to pick up a Kansas Senate seat since 1974, when then-Republican Sen. Bob Dole narrowly won reelection in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon to resign.
Like other Democratic Senate candidates around the country, Bollier received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from outside of her home state as the party sought to overturn the GOPâs 53-47 Senate majority. While Marshall raised $6.5 million, outside groups poured more than $41 million into advertising, and three-quarters came from GOP organizations.
Marshall also benefitted from President Donald Trump carrying the state. He played up his loyalty to the president on the campaign trail and that resonated with some voters such as Thora Bean, an 83-year-old retired nurse and Republican. Bean voted Tuesday in Belle Plaine, south of Wichita, and backed Trump and Marshall, citing Bollierâs support for abortion rights.
As for Marshall, she said: âI think he will go along with Trump with whatever Trump decides. He will be good for him.â
Bollier, a Kansas City-area state senator, was a lifelong moderate Republican who switched parties at the end of 2018, partly over her dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump and the Kansas GOPâs strong opposition to LGBTQ rights. She pitched herself as an independent and commonsense centrist.
She emphasized health care issues, such as protecting insurance coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. That appealed to Haley Miller, a 28-year-old health care scheduler and Democrat from the Kansas City suburb of Mission.
âI have family that has had cancer and I donât want them to lose their insurance and not be able to get it back,â Miller said. âMy mom had breast cancer, both breasts removed and things like that.â
Marshall and his allies portrayed Bollier as too liberal and too radical for Kansas, attacking her over her strong support for abortion rights and for gun control measures. They circulated video from an October event near Kansas City in which Bollier praised an Australian gun control law passed in response to a 1996 mass shooting that forced the owners of 700,000 firearms to sell them to the government.
The race also featured two physicians who have taken different approaches to the coronavirus pandemic. Bollier, a retired anesthesiologist, began her campaign by avoiding public events and later insisted on masks and social distancing.
Marshall, an obstetrician before he entered Congress in 2017, said he tried to have outdoor events, but he sometimes was indoors with people who didnât wear masks or maintain social distance and he refused to endorse mask mandates. He also said at one point that he was taking the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as an anti-coronavirus measure, even though experts say it isnât effective against the disease.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â Republican Roger Marshall won the most competitive U.S. Senate race in Kansas in decades, while President Donald Trump carried the state again, as expected.
The marquee race in Tuesdayâs election was the Senate contest between the two term-congressman Marshall and Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier in what was the most expensive political contest in state history. Marshall and his allies attacked Bollier for her strong support of abortion rights and gun control measures. Bollier was among the Democratic candidates around the country who attracted millions of dollars in contributions from outside their home states as the party tried to take control of the Senate.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â Kansas has had its most competitive U.S. Senate race in decades, though President Donald Trump carried the state as expected.
The marquee race in Tuesdayâs election was the Senate contest between two-term Republican U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall and Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier, and it was the most expensive political contest in state history. Trumpâs grip on the stateâs six electoral votes always seemed secure because no Democrat has carried the state in a presidential race since 1964. Republicans were likely to retain Marshallâs congressional seat and elect a new eastern Kansas congressman.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â Kansas has had its most competitive U.S. Senate race in decades, though President Donald Trump is expected to carry the state again and voters appear likely to elect two new Republican congressmen.
The marquee race heading into Tuesdayâs election was the Senate contest between Republican Roger Marshall, a two-term congressman for western and central Kansas, and Democrat Barbara Bollier, a Kansas City-area state senator. The race was the most expensive in Kansas history, with Bollier setting a record for any Kansas political race by raising more than $25 million to Marshallâs $6.5 million and outside groups pouring in $41 million on advertising, the bulk of it from GOP groups backing Marshall.
The two are vying for the seat held by retiring four-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, and two of the stateâs four U.S. House seats were also up for grabs this year.
Polls were to open statewide at 7 a.m. and were to stay open until 7 p.m. local time.
Hereâs what to know about the election.
HOT SENATE RACE
Democrats have not won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932, but the Marshall-Bollier contest represented their best shot since 1974, when then-Republican Sen. Bob Dole won reelection by less than 2 percentage points following the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon from office.
Bollier, a former lifelong moderate Republican who switched parties at the end of 2018, was one of several Democratic candidates around the country who attracted millions of dollars in contributions from outside their home states as the party tried to take control of the Senate. Bollier pitched herself as an independent centrist.
Marshall and his allies attacked Bollier for her strong support of abortion rights and gun control measures, and he hoped wavering GOP voters would drift back to the fold, as they had in past elections.
PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Trumpâs hold on Kansasâ six electoral votes seemed secure heading into Election Day, given that no Democratic presidential candidate has carried the state since incumbent Lyndon Johnson in his 1964 national landslide. Trump won Kansas by nearly 21 percentage points over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
But with Trumpâs support in suburban areas eroded, Democrats at leased hoped that presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden would do better than Clinton, particularly in the Kansas City area. Democrat Barack Obama topped 41% in 2008, and Jimmy Carter approached 45% in 1976.
RECORD NUMBERS EXPECTED
The stateâs top elections official forecast a 70% turnout, predicting that a record 1.35 million of the stateâs nearly 1.94 million registered would cast ballots. The coronavirus pandemic led to an unusual surge in early voting, with more than 813,005 ballots cast before Election Day by mail or in person. Even before polls opened on Election Day, the state had reached a 42% turnout rate, and election officials said they expected to exceed their initial forecast turnout by the time all ballots were cast.
NEW HOUSE MEMBERS
Marshallâs decision to run for the Senate opened up his seat representing the sprawling 1st Congressional District in central and western Kansas. The district is among the safest in the country for Republicans, making it an near-certainty that former Lt. Gov. Tracey Mann, a commercial real estate broker from Salina, would defeat Democrat Kali Barnett, a Garden City elementary school teacher.
Republicans also were expected to retain the 2nd District seat representing eastern Kansas after State Treasurer Jake LaTurner ousted Rep. Steve Watkins in the GOP primary. Watkins was charged with three felonies for allegedly listing a postal box at a UPS Inc. store as his residence for voter registration late last year. LaTurner was vying for the seat Tuesday with Topekaâs Democratic mayor, Michelle De La Isla.
INCUMBENTS EXPECTED TO WIN
The lone Democrat in the stateâs congressional delegation, freshman Rep. Sharice Davids, was expected to defeat Republican Amanda Adkins and win a second term representing the stateâs 3rd Congressional District, in the Kansas City area. Adkins is an executive on leave from medical computer systems firm Cerner Corp. and a former Kansas Republican Party chairwoman who has political ties to unpopular former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. After winning the seat in 2018, Davids positioned herself as a centrist in Congress. Trump lost the district narrowly in 2016.
In the 4th District in the Wichita area, Republican Rep. Ron Estes was expected to win reelection easily.
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