Highway contractors are bankrolling a digital ad campaign that portrays moderate Republican statehouse candidates as supporters of President Donald Trump’s plan for investing in transportation.
The Build Kansas Jobs political action committee is running an independent campaign that could pay dividends by boosting the conservative credentials of Republican lawmakers who face more right-leaning opponents in the Aug. 4 primary.
The ads target about a dozen House and Senate races, mostly in areas of the state where Trump and former Secretary of State Kris Kobach have been well received but also in other areas with streaks of blue.
They come at a time when moderates are being hit on the right from outside groups such as the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Kansans for Life.
At least in one case, a moderate lawmaker is billing themselves as a conservative even as they tout an endorsement from the Kansas National Education Association, which tends to support more left-leaning candidates.
While the Build Kansas Jobs ad could help moderates get through a primary, there is a certain amount of risk that it could haunt some of those candidates who would face strong opposition from Democrats in the fall.
The ads back Republican incumbents who voted for the state’s new multiyear transportation plan and supported the budget passed by the Legislature.
The transportation plan passed 112-3 in the House and 37-2 in the Senate.
The ads roll the candidates together with Trump’s support for infrastructure spending.
Some of the ads promote the candidates as supporters of Trump’s infrastructure plan, saying they delivered on the president’s call to rebuild the country’s economy and transportation system.
“When President Trump declared we would rebuild America’s infrastructure, Dan Goddard delivered for us,” said one ad.
“He voted for Trump’s infrastructure plan for Kansas to keep Kansans working and to fund our roads, bridges and railways.”
Trump’s “favorables are very high amongst Republican primary voters, and our people have supported those issues and we want to support them,” said Michael White, who chairs the PAC and is executive director of the Kansas Contractors Association.
“We’re not saying anything else about any other policy or anything else about the president,” he said. “We’re simply pointing out the president’s plan on infrastructure is something that our people support.”
The ads draw on lawmakers’ support for the state transportation plan and its dependence on federal highway dollars that help sustain the program.
White said his group’s emphasis is strictly on the Republican primary.
“This literally is to try to get them through the primary election and that’s it,” he said. “There was no look past Aug. 4 at all with any of this.
The group is running ads supporting state Sen. Ed Berger in Senate District 34, state Rep. Tom Cox in Senate District 10, state Sen. John Doll in Senate District 39, state Rep. Brenda Dietrich in Senate District 20, state Sen. Bruce Givens in Senate District 14, state Sen. Dan Goddard in Senate District 15, state Sen. John Skubal in Senate District 11 and state Sen. Mary Jo Taylor in Senate District 33.
Over in the House, the ads back state Rep. Jim Karleskint in House District 42, state Rep. Jan Kessinger in House District 20 and state Rep. Mark Samsel in House District 5.
“I think everybody that we pointed out that supports infrastructure supports Trump’s thoughts on infrastructure,” White said.
In each of those races targeted by the PAC, moderates are locked in a battle with more conservative candidates in districts that mostly went for Trump in 2016 and Kobach during the 2018 governor’s race.
In some instances, the districts either split between Trump in 2016 and Gov. Laura Kelly in 2018 or went for both Hillary Clinton and Kelly in those election cycles.
Berger, Goddard, Givens, Taylor, Doll, Samsel and Karleskint, for instance, are running in conservative districts that went for Trump and Kobach.
Senate District 20, where Dietrich is running, went for Kelly in 2018 and Trump in 2016. It was the same in Senate District 11, where Skubal is seeking a second term, and Senate District 10, where Cox is running. Kessinger’s district went for Clinton and Kelly.
Goddard, Givens, Taylor, Doll and Karleskint do not have general election opponents. Berger, Cox, Skubal, Dietrich, Kessinger and Samsel have opponents in the fall.
The fact that the ads come from a third party makes it easier for those candidates to distance themselves from the ads if they advance to the general election, said Washburn University political scientist Bob Beatty.
“There is a potential for what happens in a primary to hurt them in a general, but the potential is much less if it’s a third-party ad,” he said. “When it’s a third party, it gives them a little more wiggle room in the fall if they feel it’s needed.”
National Democratic Committeeman Chris Reeves said his party should use the ads as a weapon against Republicans during a general election.
“If this is them pandering to wild-eyed conservatives, of course, Democrats should point that out,” he said. “They have two choices: Renounce it or accept it.”
Johnson County political consultant Stephanie Sharp emphasized that the ads are coming from a third party and that the candidates aren’t running them.
The PAC ads for the moderates, Sharp said, make sense because contractors have an interest in state transportation spending.
“In general, they prefer mods to be in there because they are willing to vote for quality-of-life things like roads, bridges and infrastructure,” she said.
Sharp said the effectiveness largely depends on where the candidates are running.
“You have to keep in mind that you’re looking at a primary electorate and outstate it probably does make sense,” she said of the ads.
“There is no one-size-fits-all moderate,” she said. “That’s the beauty and the struggle of moderation. It doesn’t fit into a cute little definition or box.”
Doll embraced the ads in his district, which went for Trump with 72% of the vote in 2016.
“Out here, it probably helps,” he said. “We’re pretty red out here. Trump has a lot of support in the 39th District.”
Cox, the Republican lawmaker from Shawnee, said he had no idea that the ads were posted, nor did he have any input into the ad campaign.
Cox is running in Senate District 10, which went for Trump in 2016. Cox is running against Sen. Mike Thompson, who opposed the transportation plan.
“I have always kept my focus on state and local issues and never weighed into federal races or issues,” Cox said.
“I have never attached myself to a federal candidate at any level. I don’t know whether these ads help or hurt me,” he said.
White said he thinks the infrastructure issue will play in places such as Johnson County, where residents tend to want spending on infrastructure to preserve the quality of life.
“Johnson County for the most part supports infrastructure,” he said. “It’s not a Republican or Democratic issue in Johnson County.
“I can’t sit here and predict how (the candidates’) relationship with Trump would play out in a general election because I don’t know that,” he said.
