Democratic state Rep. Stan Frownfelter is seeking to do something done only once before in Kansas political history.
If Frownfelter can run a successful write-in campaign against fellow Democrat Aaron Coleman, it would be only the second time an incumbent legislator was reelected despite losing a primary election.
The last — and only — time it occurred was in 1994, when moderate Republican Ellen Samuelson lost a primary to conservative Cedric Boehr and then launched a write-in campaign that defeated him in the general election.
The secretary of state’s office said the Samuelson campaign was the last time a write-in campaign succeeded.
The Kansas Historical Society reported it was the only time in state history that an incumbent won a write-in campaign after losing the primary.
A comparable campaign occurred in 1978, when Republican state Rep. Richard Harper ran as a write-in candidate for House District 11 after the winner of the GOP primary, Steve Good, was arrested for shoplifting a carton of cigarettes.
Good pleaded guilty and tried to withdraw from the race but couldn’t because the deadline for pulling his name off the ballot had lapsed.
Harper, who had represented the district for 14 years, ran as a write-in candidate and won the general election with 3,100 votes.
Harper finished ahead of Democrat Verl Strong, who received 2,464 votes, and Good, who received 1,291 votes.
The Samuelson/Boehr race for the 74th District House seat in south-central Kansas was historic in part because it marked the emergence of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
The race was a bellwether of how Kansas politics would eventually be carved up between conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans and Democrats.
In 1994, Samuelson was seeking a fourth term in the Kansas House. She lost the primary to Boehr by 107 votes out of 3,075 votes cast.
Samuelson turned around in the general election and ran as a write-in candidate against Boehr, and she won with 54% of the vote.
Current House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer helped Samuelson on that write-in campaign in 1994, when Democrats joined with Republicans to defeat the conservative candidate.
Sawyer said he sees some similarities between the 1994 race and Frownfelter’s situation in House District 37 in Wyandotte County.
“It has all the same elements,” Sawyer said.
First, there’s no candidate on the ballot other than Coleman. Second, Frownfelter lost in a close race. And third, like Samuelson, Frownfelter is a longtime incumbent.
“People are used to voting for the incumbent, they know the incumbent,” Sawyer said. “You don’t have to get past that hurdle so much of introducing the candidate.”
Two other factors work in Frownfelter’s favor: Coleman carries the scandalous baggage that he engaged in bullying, blackmail and revenge porn; and voters are relying more on voting by mail.
Sawyer said the fact that voters are casting ballots by mail works in Frownfelter’s favor because they will have the luxury of time to write in the lawmaker’s name.
“It’s so much easier to write in (a name) at home,” Sawyer said. “You’ve got time to think about and do it.
“On Election Day, you’re in there, you’ve got all these other races to worry about and then you have to figure out how to write somebody in.
“I think that makes it really difficult for write-ins on Election Day,” he said. “With so many people voting by mail, that will make it easier.”
Also running as a write-in candidate is Kristina Smith, treasurer of the Wyandotte County Republican Party who has been endorsed by Kansans for Life.
Smith, a paralegal, has already put $1,200 into her campaign and filed paperwork appointing herself as treasurer.
Coleman could not be reached for comment for this story, but he has been on social media touting the fact that he’s the only one on the ballot.
“I know there are people running write in campaigns, but I’m the only Democrat on the ballot, in fact, I’m the only person on the ballot, and that’s because I’m the only person in the race standing up for a progressive agenda,” Coleman tweeted.
“I’m the only candidate in the race who is a progressive Democrat.”
However, Democratic Party opposition continues to build against Coleman.
Liberal activist Matt Calcara went on Twitter and demanded that Coleman return a campaign contribution so he could donate it to “actual progressive Democrats.”
“I didn’t know about all of ur history, or all of the things you’ve done in the campaign,” Calcara wrote to Coleman on Twitter. “I should have been more careful.”
Democratic state Rep. Cindy Holscher, who is running for the state Senate, already had called on Coleman to withdraw from the race.
“People who abuse women should not be in positions of power,” Holscher posted on Facebook several days ago.
“People who use social media to bully and post offensive remarks should not be in positions of power,” she wrote.
Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to wrap Coleman with the Democratic Party.
Kansans for Life tied Coleman’s social media posts on abortion — “I don’t respect fetuses, or their ‘life’” — to other Democratic legislative candidates who voted against a constitutional amendment that would have ensured abortion is not a protected right in the state constitution.
Two years ago, former Republican state Rep. Steve Becker mounted an aggressive write-in campaign after losing to Paul Waggoner by nine votes in the primary.
Becker received 3,981 write-in votes in the general election but still lost to Waggoner, who received 5,076 votes.
Going into this write-in campaign, Frownfelter is still fairly well financed. He had $19,575 on hand as of July 23. Coleman had $1,441 in his campaign fund.
