<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/8/1596661242872.jpeg" alt="Salina Rep. J.R. Claeys, right, defeated in Tuesday's Republican Party primary incumbent Sen. Randall Hardy by nearly 3,000 votes as part of a conservative surge against moderates. No Democrat filed in District 24. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Salina Rep. J.R. Claeys, right, defeated in Tuesday's Republican Party primary incumbent Sen. Randall Hardy by nearly 3,000 votes as part of a conservative surge against moderates. No Democrat filed in District 24. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/08/05/kansas-primary-undercuts-gop-moderates-rogue-democrat-clings-to-victory/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Enough dust 
settled on the Kansas primary election Wednesday to reveal Democrats 
bemoaning the ouster of moderate Republican lawmakers by conservative 
challengers and the political universe’s dismay at the one-vote lead by a
 Wyandotte County Democrat who campaigned by calling on Republicans to 
drop dead of COVID-19.Centrist Republicans in 
the Kansas House and Senate fell in the primary as the Kansas Chamber, 
Kansans for Life and other political action committees helped carry a 
majority of their conservative preferences across the finish line.Unless Democrats surge in 
November, the Kansas Legislature could trend to the right and opposition
 to Gov. Laura Kelly’s vision of tax reform and Medicaid expansion could
 deepen.“Last night’s election 
results affirmed Kansans want to thrive in a culture of limited 
government, opportunity and self-determination, all the while respecting
 life, neighbors, law and order,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, a 
Wichita Republican who didn’t seek re-election. “My focus now is to 
preserve our veto-proof majority in the Kansas Senate to keep a check on
 Laura Kelly’s liberal policies, and stabilize and grow our economy in 
the midst of a historical pandemic.”She also urged moderate 
and conservative Republicans to unify behind the GOP’s nominees in 
November to defeat “the extreme liberal agenda.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/8/1596661306941.jpeg" alt="Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican not seeking re-election, says her top priority is maintaining a veto-proof GOP majority in the Senate to thwart the agenda of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican not seeking re-election, says her top priority is maintaining a veto-proof GOP majority in the Senate to thwart the agenda of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>The August primary results
 suggested statehouse politics could in the future more precisely follow
 party lines rather than operate with essentially a three-party model of
 conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans and Democrats. The House
 and Senate could become more ideological and accentuate policy 
gridlock.A pair of Democratic 
legislators, both former Republicans, were struck by defeat of centrist 
GOP lawmakers in the same election cycle that prompted Democrats to 
nominate women in the state’s four U.S. House districts and the open 
U.S. Senate seat.“If you still believe 
there is room for moderates in the GOP, take another look at the primary
 results,” said Lenexa Sen. Dinah Sykes, who was among four Republicans 
who switched allegiances after the 2018 elections.Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an
 Overland Park Democrat who defected along with Sykes, said the state’s 
moderate Republicans deserved “representation, respect and time to 
process things.”<h2>The defeated</h2>Incumbent Republican 
senators taking a licking in the Tuesday primary included John Skubal, 
of Overland Park; Bruce Givens, of El Dorado; Dan Goddard, of Parsons; 
Eric Rucker, of Topeka; Randall Hardy, of Salina; Mary Jo Taylor, of 
Stafford; and Ed Berger, of Hutchinson. Over in the House, the GOP 
members falling out of favor were Jan Kessinger, of Overland Park; Jim 
Karleskint, of Tonganoxie; Diana Dierks, of Salina; Michael Capps, of 
Wichita; and J.C. Moore, of Clearwater.The District 15 contest in
 southeast Kansas between Goddard and former Rep. Virgil Peck remained 
close with late advance and provisional ballots left to be counted. As 
of Tuesday night, Peck had 4,927 votes to Goddard’s 4,886 votes.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/8/1596661343495.jpeg" alt="Former state Rep. Virgil Peck, a Havana Republican, holds a 41-vote lead with nearly 10,000 ballots cast over GOP Sen. Dan Goddard of Parsons. Peck’s campaign is part of a strategy to root out moderate GOP senators. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Former state Rep. Virgil Peck, a Havana Republican, holds a 41-vote lead with nearly 10,000 ballots cast over GOP Sen. Dan Goddard of Parsons. Peck’s campaign is part of a strategy to root out moderate GOP senators. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>Overland Park Republican 
Jane Dirks took 58% of the vote in District 20 of Johnson County in a 
campaign that amplified Kessinger’s refusal to support a proposed 
constitutional amendment that would have declared the Kansas 
Constitution didn’t afford women the right to abortion. Kessinger was 
among four Republicans who didn’t back the amendment, and it fell short 
of the two-thirds majority required to put it on statewide ballots.Leawood Democrat Mari-Lynn
 Poskin, who will go up against Dirks in the general election, said 
Dirks’ campaign showed the GOP wasn’t interested in the contribution of 
cross-aisle consensus builders.“GOP extremists proved they have no appetite for bipartisan, common sense approaches to governing our state,” Poskin said.Three House primary 
contests — one Democrat, two Republican — were closer than 50 votes 
after Tuesday’s count. In the three-person Democratic race to replace 
Rep. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat, candidates Mike Griswold and 
Whitney Moulder were separated by 37 votes from more than 1,000 cast.In the state’s only 
four-candidate primary, the Kansas Chamber and KFL-backed candidate 
Kathy Valentine of Newton was trailing fellow Republican Avery Anderson 
by 39 votes. Anderson had 1,263, while Valentine was at 1,224. That seat
 is held by Rep. Tim Hodge, a North Newton Democrat and top target of 
Republicans.The other 
too-early-to-call race had Marysville Republican Jon Ungerer with 2,622 
votes to Wheaton Republican Lisa Moser’s 2,610. They’re competing for 
the GOP nomination for the District 106 seat to be vacated by Rep. Bill 
Pannbacker, a Washington Republican.<h2>The Coleman thing</h2>The lone incumbent 
Democrat facing the uncomfortable reality of a potential primary loss is
 Rep. Stan Frownfelter, who has served the Kansas City, Kan., district 
since 2007. He was trailing — 768-767 — to challenger Aaron Coleman, a 
19-year-old who said on social media Republicans who refuse to wear a 
mask during the COVID-19 pandemic deserved to fall ill or die. He later 
apologized.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/8/1596661373194.jpeg" alt="Moderate Rep. Tom Cox of Shawnee fell far short Tuesday in a challenge of conservative Sen. Mike Thompson, the Shawnee former TV weather forecaster. Thompson gathered 73% of the vote in the primary race. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Moderate Rep. Tom Cox of Shawnee fell far short Tuesday in a challenge of conservative Sen. Mike Thompson, the Shawnee former TV weather forecaster. Thompson gathered 73% of the vote in the primary race. (Nick Krug for Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>Bob Beatty, a Washburn 
University political science professor, said he doubted most 
participants in the Frownfelter-Coleman primary, many of whom could be 
considered “low-information voters,” were familiar with attributes or 
complexities of these Democratic candidates. It’s much easier for voters
 to focus on top-of-the-ballot candidates, he said.Gadfly candidates 
typically suffer overwhelming defeat at the ballot box but it is 
possible for someone to gain an advantage by leaning into red-meat 
rhetoric to invigorate their political base, said Patrick Miller, a 
political science professor at the University of Kansas.He also said it was 
possible Frownfelter underestimated the attraction of a new, younger 
candidate who bashed the GOP without reservation.“To have incumbency work for you, you have to take advantage of it,” Miller said.<h2>Missouri model</h2>Kelly, the Democrat 
elected governor in 2018, said she was intrigued Missouri joined Kansas’
 neighboring states of Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma to expand 
eligibility for Medicaid under the law signed by President Barack Obama a
 decade ago. Voters in red-state Missouri endorsed Medicaid expansion 
despite a campaign by Republican state leaders to derail the initiative.
 The measure was adopted 53% to 46%.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/8/1596661403774.jpeg" alt="Gov. Laura Kelly says passage by Missouri voters of Medicaid expansion leaves Kansas in a five-state group with Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma still resisting a federal program extending health care to low- and moderate-income people. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Gov. Laura Kelly says passage by Missouri voters of Medicaid expansion leaves Kansas in a five-state group with Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma still resisting a federal program extending health care to low- and moderate-income people. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>For 
years, GOP Govs. Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer successfully collaborated
 with Republican-majority legislators to stiff-arm Medicaid reform in 
Kansas.“Every 
single Kansas voter must ask themselves why, year after year, Republican
 leadership in the Legislature has blocked expansion,” Kelly said. 
“Their obstruction has left 150,000 Kansans without access to healthcare
 during a global health crisis. They have forfeited $4 billion Kansas 
taxpayer dollars. They have rejected 13,000 new jobs that we could bring
 to Kansas.”“Republican
 leadership in the Legislature must stop playing politics with Kansans’ 
lives and support Medicaid expansion,” she said.Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International.&nbsp;

Kansas primary undercuts GOP moderates in Legislature