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Colyer’s Announcement Puts Brownback Back In the Spotlight For Kansas Gov Race, Nasty Primary Emerges

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Nasty GOP Primary Will Divide Kansas Republicans as Senator Marshall Snubs Derek Schmidt By Backing Colyer


Jeff Colyer’s announcement today that he’s running for the GOP nomination for governor is putting former Governor Sam Brownback and their shared failures back in the spotlight. 

Colyer was Brownback’s right-hand man as they ran the Kansas economy into the ground, forcing families to face harmful cuts to health care, public education and threats to retirement savings as a result of their failed and unpopular tax experiment. Colyer also made clear he will refuse to expand Medicaid in Kansas, denying health care to working families, while endangering rural hospitals and health care clinics. 

In addition to making Brownback’s failed record front-and-center again, Colyer’s announcement also made it clear the GOP primary is set to be a brutal and divisive battle among Kansas Republicans. Instead of staying on the sidelines, Senator Marshall snubbed sitting GOP Attorney General Derek Schmidt by immediately endorsing Colyer. While this will of course divide Kansas Republicans further, Colyer needs all the help he can get as he’s recently known for losing a humiliating primary to national embarrassment Kris Kobach. 

In a sign of things to come, when Schmidt previously announced his campaign in March, Colyer wasted no time immediately launching personal attacks, saying Schmidt spent “twenty years carrying water for the most liberal elements of the Kansas Republican Party.”

“Jeff Colyer is running for governor to try to drag Kansas back to the failed and unpopular Brownback era, while also setting the stage for a nasty and divisive GOP primary,” said DGA Deputy Communications Director Sam Newton. “It’s pretty clear what this primary will be: A competition between two Republicans who want to bring back the Brownback tax experiment, fighting with each other about just how extreme to go with it this next time around. Either way, this will mean major cuts to schools and a broken state budget – just like the last time.”


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