Colyer Concedes in Kansas, Handing Governor’s Nomination to Kris Kobach

SABETHA, Kan. — A week after voters went to the polls in Kansas, Gov. Jeff Colyer conceded in the race for the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday night, handing a razor-thin victory to Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Colyer had raised concerns in recent days about Kobach’s role in the vote-counting process, citing the secretary of state’s responsibility for overseeing the tallying of mail-in and provisional ballots. But speaking from the Statehouse in Topeka, Colyer said he would not challenge the results or ask for a recount.

As of Tuesday night, with counties midway through tallying their provisional ballots, Kobach was leading Colyer by 345 votes out of more than 300,000 Republican ballots.

“This election is probably the closest in America, but the numbers are just not there unless we were to go to extraordinary measures,” Colyer said.

This primary had attracted broad interest long before election night on Aug. 7 ended with no clear winner. Though Kobach and Colyer are each staunch conservatives, the matchup gave Kansas Republicans a choice between two distinct political styles.

While Colyer was viewed as a mild-mannered moderate, Kobach, endorsed by President Donald Trump, was known widely for his strident views on illegal immigration and voter fraud. His aggressive approach prompted concerns among Republicans in Kansas and in Washington that he would be too polarizing in the general election in November, handing an opening to Democrats in a year in which they also hope to flip at least two House seats from red to blue.

Hours before Colyer conceded, Kobach said he was optimistic that he would clinch the nomination and hopeful that Republicans would unite behind him.

But Kobach had stopped just short of declaring victory. He acknowledged that several counties still had to count their votes, and deflected a question about whether Colyer should concede.

“That’s up to him,” Kobach said. “I think at this point the numbers look very difficult, the way that the trend is moving.”

Kobach, who has spent years building a national profile, is a brash, outspoken ally of the president whose campaign rhetoric sometimes sounds like Trump’s and who has long excited the party’s base. Colyer, more measured in his speech and not known as well outside Kansas, was seen by many national Republicans as a safer general election candidate with more appeal to moderate voters.

Though Republicans are dominant in Kansas politics, Democrats are energized and could benefit from the other side’s prolonged primary squabble. State Sen. Laura Kelly, the Democratic nominee, and Greg Orman, a businessman running as an independent, will face Kobach in November.

In a statement Tuesday night, Kelly compared Kobach to Sam Brownback, the former Kansas governor whose conservative tax-cutting policies led to revenue shortfalls and significant budget cuts. Brownback, who was deeply unpopular by the end of his tenure, resigned early this year to become an ambassador.

“With Kris Kobach as governor, Kansans get all of the failed policies of Sam Brownback plus Kobach’s unique brand of hyper-partisanship and self-promotion,” Kelly said.

Though Kobach and Colyer had each acknowledged their race was too close to call after the initial count ended with a 191-vote margin, the days that followed brought increasing acrimony. Despite platitudes about party unity, the tone grew harsher after one rural county discovered a tabulation error that added 100 votes to Colyer’s tally.

In recent days, Colyer warned that many political independents had been given faulty information at the polls and that their ballots may be improperly discarded. He also started a “voting integrity hotline” and accused Kobach, in his role as secretary of state, of providing bad advice to county election officials.

Kobach on Friday recused himself from the vote-counting process at the governor’s request, but Colyer was dissatisfied with his choice of a top deputy to replace him. For his part, Kobach criticized his opponent’s tactics and warned of the potential consequences.

But as major counties tallied their provisional ballots this week, it became clearer that Colyer was unlikely to close the gap. Republicans had worried aloud that a recount or court fight, which for days seemed likely, could only benefit the Democrats.

“If it were to drag out into next week, then it would definitely make a difference and it would hurt the party greatly,” Kobach warned a couple hours before Colyer conceded.

Colyer, a plastic surgeon who served seven years as lieutenant governor, said he wanted to avoid that.

“Right here and now,” Colyer said Tuesday night, “we will endorse the winner, Kris Kobach.”