Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will make history in becoming the GOP nominee for Kansas governor after unseating incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer in the primary election.
As Breitbart News reported, following the unofficial vote total in the gubernatorial primary last week, Kobach led Colyer by a little less than 200 votes. This prompted a count of all provisional ballots across the state.
Today — after the second day of counting where Kobach increased his lead by 345 votes — Colyer conceded the primary race to Kobach in, telling the media:
I’ve just had a conversation with [Kobach] and I congratulated him on his success and I repeated my determination to keep this seat in Republican hands. The numbers are just not there unless we were to go to extraordinary measures.
Kobach was endorsed by President Trump the day before the Kansas GOP primary election, a statement of support that the former Trump transition team immigration adviser said was “absolutely crucial” to his success in the primary.
In a statement to Breitbart News, Kobach said:
[Colyer] was incredibly gracious, and that meant a lot after such a hard-fought campaign. I want to thank Gov. Jeff Colyer for a race well run. He was a worthy opponent, and I thank him sincerely for his service to the state of Kansas. I will work hard to advance our shared values, and I look forward to working with Governor Colyer and all Republicans to keep Kansas red in November.
Kobach’s win in the Kansas GOP primary ends the historical political precedent in the state that has gone on for more than six decades, wherein sitting governors have not lost their primary elections.
https://twitter.com/KrisKobach1787/status/1029533571504111616
Not since 1959 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 is the first time this year that an incumbent governor lost his election and a major win for Trump’s “America First” faction of politics, to which Kobach is most certainly considered the heir.
Kobach will now face off in the general election against Planned Parenthood-endorsed Democrat Laura Kelly and left-wing Independent candidate Greg Orman.
Full Disclosure: Kris Kobach is a columnist for Breitbart News.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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