The Kansas Farm Bureau’s 24-year streak of endorsing winning candidates in the Kansas governor’s race is about to end.
This week, the Farm Bureau handed out its general election endorsements but took a pass on the Kansas governor’s race with Republican Kris Kobach, Democrat Laura Kelly and independent Greg Orman.
It will mark the first time that the Farm Bureau did not endorse a winning candidate in the Kansas governor’s race since it formed its political action committee in 1993, officials said.
The Farm Bureau endorsed Gov. Jeff Colyer in the GOP primary, but decided against endorsing in the general election. Four years ago, the organization backed former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback against Democrat Paul Davis.
The Kobach campaign would not comment on the Farm Bureau’s decision. During the primary, Kobach shrugged off the Farm Bureau’s endorsement of Colyer, blaming it on a disagreement over his hard-line approach on immigration policy.
“Some people in the Farm Bureau want a steady supply of illegal labor and they know that if I am elected I will be pushing for E-Verify, I will be cutting benefits for illegal aliens and I will be doing everything I can to encourage illegal aliens to leave Kansas,” Kobach said in an interview last summer.
After Colyer failed to advance to the general election, the Farm Bureau went back to the 105 county Farm Bureaus to get feedback about an endorsement, said Ryan Flickner senior director of public policy for the group. In the end, there was not enough agreement to make a recommendation, he said.
“I don’t think there was any single particular issue,” Flickner said. “The candidates didn’t offer the counties any real substance that allowed them to feel comfortable on agricultural issues.
“There wasn’t any single candidate that really had that at “ah-ha” that the counties felt comfortable with.”
The Farm Bureau’s decision means that Kobach has lost an endorsement that went to Brownback in 2014 and 2010 as he battles neck and neck with Kelly in the governor’s race.
The National Federation of Independent Business also chose to sit out the governor’s race this year after endorsing Brownback in 2014 and 2010 but that issue centered more on worker’s compensation than immigration.
And the Livestock Association, which has been at odds with Kobach over the years, did not announce an endorsement in the governor’s race when it revealed its legislative endorsements a little more than a week ago. The group left the open the possibility it might revisit its endorsements.
In previous years, the Farm Bureau endorsed former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2006 and 2002 and former Republican Gov. Bill Graves in 1998 and 1994, Flickner said.
Flickner added that the Farm Bureau PAC has a better than 90 percent success rate of picking office holders, including in statehouse races, statewide offices and federal races.
“As an organization we continue to dialog with all candidates about our priorities for the coming year,” Flickner said in a separate email.
“We encourage our members to continue to dialog with candidates for any office and research how candidates will support the policy priorities of the largest agricultural organization in the state.”
