Kris Kobach Could Make History by Defeating Incumbent Kansas Governor

A victory for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the GOP gubernatorial primary would end a more than 60-year streak of sitting governors winning their primary elections in the Sunflower State.

Kobach — endorsed by President Trump — leads incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer (R) by a little less than 200 votes in the state’s GOP primary election for governor, which took place Tuesday. The closeness of the race is prompting an effort to count provision ballots early next week and from there, new election numbers will be released.

Should Kobach continue to lead Colyer after the provisional ballots are counted, the Colyer campaign would have to decide whether they want to pay for a recount. Even if Colyer wins after the recount, he will not be refunded for the effort.

Kobach’s potential win in Kansas would end a political historical precedent in the state that has gone on for more than six decades, wherein sitting governors have not lost their primary elections.

Not since 19596 has a Kansas governor lost to his primary opponent in a gubernatorial race. And the last time a sitting Kansas governor was defeated in his re-election bid was in 1990. In the country, as a whole, the last incumbent governor to be defeated in a primary election was in Hawaii four years ago.

Kobach’s victory over Colyer — who is backed by the Republican establishment — would be the first time this year that an incumbent governor loses his election and a major win for Trump, who endorsed the populist conservative the day before the election on Tuesday.

Kansas political insiders tell Breitbart News that new election numbers in the race will likely be released in the middle of next week after all provisional ballots are counted.