The campaign over the proposed constitutional amendment on abortion cost more than $20 million, surpassing what was spent in the last two races for governor and may be one of the most expensive primaries in Kansas history.
New campaign reports trickling in this week show the two leading groups battling over the amendment – Kansans for Constitutional Freedom and the Value Them Both Association – spent more than $18 million alone.
Add in an assortment of other groups that spent independently on the campaign – Kansans for Life, the Kansas Catholic Conference, Mainstream Coalition and a handful of Democratic groups – and the total climbs to at least $21 million or more.
By comparison, the money spent or booked on broadcast advertising in this year’s governor’s race between Gov. Laura Kelly and Attorney General Derek Schmidt is already at $24.4 million so far.
And roughly $16.7 million was spent on broadcast ads during the primary in the 2020 U.S. Senate race in Kansas, according to data compiled by national ad tracking firm AdImpact.
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the leading coalition opposed to the amendment, spent about $10.7 million this year successfully campaigning for the amendment’s defeat. It spent about $164,000 in 2021, bringing its total to about $10.86 million.
The Value Them Both Association spent about $7.1 million on the campaign this year on top of the $163,600 it spent last year to bring its total to almost $7.3 million.
Meanwhile, Kansans for Life reported spending $1.6 million on the campaign this year and its political action committee reported laying out $234,380.
The reported expenditures do not include $1.3 million that Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America spent on the campaign for the amendment and another nearly $400,000 that the Restoration Political Action Committee spent on broadcast ads for the amendment.
The amendment, which would have ensured there was no right to an abortion in the state constitution, was defeated 59% to 41% in an election marked by massive turnout in a primary where turnout tends to be much smaller and dominated by Republican voters.
Coming weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the right to an abortion, the historic election made Kansas the first state since 2014 to reject a constitutional amendment similar to what had been passed in Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana.
The latest report showed that abortion rights supporters received backing from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg and his actress wife, Kate Capshaw.
Bloomberg gave $1.25 million to Kansans for Constitutional Freedom while Spielberg and Capshaw each gave $25,000.
Planned Parenthood and its various affiliates, along with Trust Women in Wichita, the Center for Reproductive Rights and NARAL Pro-Choice America gave about $2.4 million combined to Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, campaign finance reports show.
It also received $1.485 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which promotes access to affordable health care, addresses climate change and has given millions of dollars over the years to left-leaning causes.
In 2018, Politico reported that the fund gave money to fight Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment and other Trump judicial nominees as well as promoting ballot measures raising the minimum wage and changing laws on voting and redistricting.
The fund reported raising about $143 million in 2018, according to its tax return from that year, the latest available.
The report shows that the fund gave $27.1 million to America Votes, $1.3 million to Arkansans for a Fair Wage and $2 million to Coloradans to Stop Predatory Payday Loans, among others.
The supporters of the amendment received heavy support from the Catholic Church, including the Archdiocese of Kansas City, which put about $3.7 million into the Value Them Both campaign this year and last, campaign finance reports show.
The amendment also received support from a separate political action committee started by former Congressman Tim Huelskamp that spent $478,000 on the campaign and received $250,000 in funding from CatholicVote Action.
Right before the election, a mysterious text telling Kansans that the constitutional amendment would have given women a choice on abortion was traced back to Huelskamp’s PAC and was denounced by the amendment’s opponents as deceitful.
The money spent on the abortion amendment campaign was more than what had been spent on similar proposals in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. The state of West Virginia did not track spending on issue campaigns.
The Tennessee constitutional amendment passed with about 53% of the vote, even though abortion rights supporters spent $4.5 million campaigning against the amendment.
About $2.4 million was spent campaigning for the amendment, which said that nothing in the Tennessee constitution protects a right to an abortion.
In Alabama, abortion rights supporters spent about $1.4 million trying to defeat a similar amendment compared to just about $8,000 spent by their rivals and still lost overwhelmingly.
The amount spent on the Kansas abortion campaign surpassed what had been spent on previous governor’s races, further underscoring the significance of the vote.
In 2014, Democrat Paul Davis and then Republican Gov. Sam Brownback spent about $10.3 million combined.
In 2018, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, Republican Kris Kobach and independent candidate Greg Orman spent almost than $9.3 million on that governor’s race, including their primary races.
The four major Republican candidates for governor in 2018 – Kobach, Jeff Colyer, Ken Selzer and Jim Barnett – spent roughly $5.2 million during their Republican primary.
