Incumbent Kansas Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly has survived Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s bid to unseat her and will move into her second term in Topeka.
Kelly collected 49 percent of the vote to Schmidt’s 48 percent, with an estimated 90 percent of the votes counted on Nov. 9. Throughout the summer and fall, polls showed Kelly and Schmidt in a neck-and-neck race.
The Kelly-Schmidt race was one of 36 gubernatorial elections nationwide this fall. Kelly was among 22 Democratic governors seeking re-election, but the only one doing so in a state that former President Donald Trump won in 2020.
Kelly served 14 years in the state Senate after a 16-year stint as executive director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association. She defeated former Republican Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach by 5 percentage points in the 2018 gubernatorial race….