As she approaches her reelection campaign in 2022, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly continues to outpace what previous governors raised at a similar point in their terms.
Kelly raised about $428,600 last year, down from the roughly $586,000 she raised the year before, new campaign finance reports show.
However, Kelly is ahead of where former Govs. Sam Brownback and Kathleen Sebelius were at the same time in their tenure as governor.
Brownback raised about $148,600 in his second year as governor, while Sebelius hauled in about $219,000, campaign finance reports show.
Kelly also has a healthy amount of cash on hand after two years as governor.
She reported having almost $655,000 in the bank at the end of 2020, her latest campaign report shows.
By comparison, Brownback had about $518,000 in cash on hand at the end of his second year as governor, while Sebelius only had about $150,000.
Kelly’s contributions included $2,000 from the out-of-state Save Democracy PAC, which says it is running a nationwide effort to “confront and defeat Republican extremism up and down the ballot.”
The governor received another $2,000 from the Defeat Republicans PAC that has connections back to the Save Democracy PAC.
It is anticipated that Kelly will likely be running against Attorney General Derek Schmidt, former Gov. Jeff Colyer, House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., or perhaps Wichita businessman Wink Hartman.
Colyer’s campaign account from two years ago is still open, but he had just $58 in the bank at the end of the year.
