Democratic state Sen. Ethan Corson urged voters to question whether Democratic Sen. Cindy Holscher can be trusted as governor, underscoring again her shifting positions on the Chiefs’ deal, data centers as well as whether she’s honest about her claims of success in Republican-leaning districts.
In a debate Thursday night broadcast online by Kansas PBS, Corson stepped up his criticism of Holscher, who has been shown to be leading in the Democratic primary in the only two public polls of the race released since last January.
Also participating in the Democratic debate was Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog, who billed himself as a consensus builder who will bring people together to fund schools, address budget issues, tackle health care needs and build a flourishing state. He said Overland Park can find a way to get things done even if 40% of the city is Republican and 40% is Democrat.
Meanwhile, Corson said Holscher misrepresented her opposition to the Chiefs’ deal and overstated her claims about winning in Republican-majority legislative districts that tend to vote more for Democratic candidates.
“Can we have a governor who continues to look into the camera to you, Kansas voters, and says things that she knows to be untrue?” Corson said.
From the outset of the debate, Corson immediately challenged Holscher’s claims that she voted against the incentives package to bring the Chiefs to Kansas, a point she made responding to a question about the state’s financial stability.
“I won’t be pushing and supporting programs and policies that sell us out to corporations or billionaires,” she said.
“That’s why I voted against the Chiefs deal because it sells out our future of being able to fund our schools and critical infrastructure in favor of giving big tax deductions to billionaires,” he said.
Corson immediately responded, saying she “absolutely” supported the incentives for the Chiefs stadium in Kansas City, which were approved before the Legislature created a sports authority to oversee the facility. Holscher opposed the sport authority.
Holscher described the incentives approved during a special session in 2024 as “exploratory” to see if the state could bring the Chiefs and the Royals to Kansas. “I welcomed exploring that because I want them here.”
But the bill Holscher supported provided incentives that would help finance the stadium deal.
The bill allowed sales tax revenue, or STAR, bonds to cover up to 70% of stadium costs, up from the 50% that was allowed for those types of big-ticket development projects that promoted tourism.
The bill also extended the amount of time it would take to repay the bonds issued for the project to 30 years from 20 years.
The bill also allowed for a separate location such as a practice facility to be included in the district where revenues would be funneled to pay for a stadium.
“I think it’s interesting that Sen. Corson wants to say we both voted for that deal when that’s not the case,” she said.
“There were several steps to this process,” she said.
“When it became apparent that the deal put together by (Senate President) Ty Masterson and a small group of lawmakers was a boondoggle for billionaires, I put on the brakes.
“Sen. Corson was full speed-ahead and voted for that end product to give away tax funds for billionaires.”
Corson pointed out that by voting against the creation of the sports authority, Holscher opposed legislation that gave representatives from Kansas City and Olathe a seat on the panel that will oversee the stadium.
Skoog used the disagreement between Holscher and Corson to set himself apart in the primary.
“I appreciate my two senators. They do a great job in the Legislature,” he said.
“But you just saw an example of what a legislator will do in the governor’s office,” he said. “I’m about building consensus. It’s not about fighting. It’s not about who said something first. It’s about getting things done.”
Later in the debate, the candidates to turned Holscher’s ability to win in Republican districts.
Throughout the campaign, Holscher has touted her ability to win in red districts, while skeptics have quietly pointed out that winning in those kinds of districts in Johnson County are different from winning in a red district in western Kansas.
During a forum earlier this year in Lawrence, Holscher said she’s won four elections in a red district – “something no other Democrat has done.”
“Those are the toughest type of elections to win,” she said at that forum. “It’s going to take somebody with that type of skill set to win this race in Kansas – a red state.”
Holscher touted the fact that in 2016 she defeated a conservative Republican incumbent in a House district won by President Donald Trump with about 49% of the vote.
She was easily re-elected to the House from that same district in 2018, but in that year Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly won that district with about 55% of the vote, according to data compiled by researchers at Wichita State University.
Holscher won her race for the Senate in 2020, but Republican incumbent Jim Denning opted not to seek re-election with the district already trending more Democratic at that time.
In 2020, Holscher beat Republican James Todd – a former House member who lost an earlier election to a Democrat – in a Senate district won by President Joe Biden with 58.3% of the vote, according to WSU’s data.
When Holscher sought re-election to the Senate in 2024, Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris received about 60% of the vote in her district, according to WSU data.
And in 2022, Democrat Mark Holland of Kansas City received 55% of the vote against Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran in Holscher’s Senate district while the Democrat governor received 64%.
Her Eighth Senate District now has 411 more Democrats than Republicans as of June 8, according to records from the secretary of state’s office. Four years ago, records show that Republicans outnumbered Democrats in that district by 1,462.
At one point, Holscher drew some criticism from Skoog after she said that working in a Legislature with a Republican supermajority of “extremists” was different from a city council or a county commission where everybody’s from the same party.
“Cindy, living in Overland Park, I don’t think you know Overland Park,” Skoog said.
“You serve one of the bluest districts in the state,” he said.
“Overland Park is a diverse community and our council is made up of diverse political parties,” he said. “We are able to work across party lines every day to make things happen,” he said.
“We’re the No. 1 place to live, work, play, start a business,” he said.
“That’s because we work together as a community, not as individuals. My job is to implement the community’s vision and I will do that as governor.”
At one point, Holscher suggested that Corson and Skoog were missing in action about a decade ago when Democrats and moderate Republicans were fighting to repeal former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts.
“I ran in 2016 at the height of the Brownback experiment when our schools were being devastated by budget cuts,” she said.
“We did the heavy lifting, a women’s coalition putting together the bills to end the experiment,” she said.
“Where were these guys when the ship was sinking,” she asked. “It was women working together to end the experiment.”
Corson pointed to his work as executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, successfully getting Laura Kelly elected governor and Sharice Davids elected to Congress in 2018.
“I took over a party that had not won a congressional election since 2008. I took over a party that had not won a statewide election since 2006,” he said.
“I worked tirelessly all across this state behind the scenes – not out in front, not seeking credit – to lead our party to the most successful election cycle in a generation.”
Here’s the full debate if you haven’t seen in it:
