TOPEKA, Kan. _ Congressman Roger Marshall defeated Kris Kobach in the Kansas Republican race for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, a victory driven by a party establishment that considered the OB-GYN from Great Bend the best chance of continuing 81 years of uninterrupted GOP control of the state's Senate seats.
Marshall and Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state, fought bitterly in the primary, engaging in intense mudslinging over who was the true conservative and staunchest ally of President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press called the race for Marshall shortly after 9 p.m. CDT. According to the Kansas secretary of state's office, Marshall had 37% of the vote to Kobach's 26% with two-fifths of precincts reporting.
Bob Hamilton, a Kansas City area businessman who spent millions of his own wealth to blanket the airwaves with ads, had 20%.
"We're the candidate that will win the general election," Marshall said early Tuesday night.
Marshall, a second-term representative who represents the state's vast 1st District, will face Democrat Barbara Bollier in the general election. Bollier, a former Republican and current state senator from the Johnson County community of Mission Hills, is poised to wage the most competitive Democratic challenge for Senate in Kansas in years.
"Republican voters have chosen to put their best foot forward and given us the best chance to send a common-sense conservative to the Senate," said David Kensinger, a longtime Kansas Republican strategist.
The election culminates a stunning fall for Kobach, an informal adviser to Trump who carved out a national reputation as an immigration hard-liner. Kobach had staked his chances of electoral redemption on a primary victory after he lost the 2018 governor's race to Democrat Laura Kelly.
But groups with ties to national Republicans spent millions urging voters to reject Kobach for fear that he would again lose to a Democrat if nominated. The effort resulted in brutal TV ads highlighting how he hadn't been chosen for a position in the Trump administration and his campaign had paid a volunteer who posted on white nationalist websites.
Money flowed into the race on all sides. In the final eight days before the election, outside groups booked $2.5 million in pro-Marshall and anti-Kobach TV ads, according to Medium Buying, which tracks ad purchases. A pro-Kobach group bought $419,000 in air time while a "meddling" group running ads likely to prop up Kobach purchased $2.3 million in air time.
The general election will pit doctor against doctor as the coronavirus continues to grip Kansas and much of the nation. Both Marshall and Bollier feature their medical backgrounds prominently in their campaigns and are likely to lean on their credentials as they try to connect with voters this fall.
Marshall has talked about how he has delivered thousands of babies and even tried, unsuccessfully, to be listed as "Doc Roger Marshall" on the ballot. Bollier, a retired anesthesiologist, originally pitched her slogan as "Washington is sick, send a doctor" before the pandemic emerged.
"Clearly, Dr. Marshall takes away the doctor card from Bollier, and she uses it all the time, on the (Kansas) Senate floor, the House floor, and in her commercials," Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said in a statement in July.
Despite their shared profession, the two physicians have sharply split over their response to the coronavirus. Marshall has campaigned in-person throughout the state, shaking hands and often going maskless. Bollier has rarely left her home, instead hosting virtual campaign events over Zoom.
Still, Bollier assembled an extraordinary fundraising machine that shattered previous records for Democrats in Kansas. Bollier left the Republican Party in 2018 over frustrations with Trump and GOP hostility toward LGBTQ rights. As a candidate, she has mostly sidestepped Trump.
National Republican groups, which rallied to Marshall's side during the primary, are likely to again come to his aid in the fall. Some Republicans also predict Marshall will muster a stronger, more competitive campaign against Bollier than Kobach would have.
"It's going to help Republicans up and down the ballot," Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman, said. "I know Congressman Marshall will have the resources and invest those resources into our get out the vote campaign ... to make sure not only Roger Marshall is elected but all of our candidates."
