We’re in the heart of election season, which means candidate endorsements are rolling out in a steady flow. We will try to bring you as many of them as we can regardless of their political leaning. We are aware that there are other endorsements out there and we promise to get to them as we soon as we can assemble them.
We’ll kick it off today with candidate endorsements from the MainStream Coalition’s political action committee.
MainStream endorsed Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly and former Republican state Sen. Jim Barnett in their respective party’s gubernatorial primaries.
With support from party establishment, Kelly is considered a front-runner in the Democratic primary for governor while Barnett has shown to be trailing Gov. Jeff Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the GOP primary.
Kelly received the nod from MainStream over former state Rep. Josh Svaty and former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer. Barnett, a moderate Republican candidate, picked up the endorsement over Kobach, Colyer and Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer.
While Democrat Brent Welder recently received support from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 3rd District congressional primary, Prairie Village teacher Tom Niermann won MainStream’s endorsement.
On the Republican side, MainStream endorsed little-known Trevor Keegan against incumbent Congressman Kevin Yoder.
Niermann beat out Welder, Sharice Davids, Mike McCamon, Jay Sidie and Sylvia Williams for the MainStream endorsement in the Democratic congressional primary.
A 15-member, non-partisan committee reviewed candidate surveys, available voting records and candidate interviews when needed as well as other factors to determine how closely a candidate matched with MainStream’s values. Here’s the organization’s survey.
We’ll now walk you through just contested primaries where MainStream chose to endorse or completely skip past the race. We list all the candidates in the races where there was no endorsement. Here’s a link to all of MainStream’s endorsements.
Republican primary for secretary of state
No endorsement.
Candidates running: Randy Duncan, state Rep. Keith Esau, Craig McCullah, state Rep. Scott Schwab and Dennis Taylor
Republican primary for insurance commissioner
Endorsed candidate: state Sen. Vicki Schmidt.
Opposition: Clark Shultz
House District 8 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Patty Markley
Opposition: Chris Croft
House District 14 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: Tom Stanion
Opposition: Charlotte Esau, Aaron Young
House District 17 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Tom Cox
Opposition: Jim Eschrich
House District 18 Democratic primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Cindy Neighbor
Opposition: Andy Hurla
House District 18 Republican primary
No endorsement
Candidates running: Cathy Gordon, Eric Jenkins
House District 22 Democratic primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Nancy Lusk
Opposition: Michael Coleman III
House District 27 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: Karen Snyder
Opposition: state Rep. Sean Tarwater, Rochelle Bird
House District 28 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Joy Koesten
Opposition: Kellie Warren
House District 29 Republican primary
No endorsement
Candidates running: Peggy Galvin, James Todd
House District 30 Democratic primary
Endorsed candidate: Brandon Woodard
Opposition: Matthew Calcara
House District 30 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: Colleen Webster
Opposition: Wendy Bingesser
House District 38 Republican primary
No endorsement
Candidates running: state Rep. Willie Dove, Noel Hull
House District 39 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: Kristy Acree
Opposition: Owen Donohoe
House District 42 Republican primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Jim Karleskint
Opposition: Lance Neelly
House District 45 Democratic primary
Endorsed candidate: Mike Amyx
Opposition: Steven Davis and Aidan Koster
House District 46 Democratic primary
Endorsed candidate: state Rep. Boog Highberger
Opposition: Benjamin Ferlo
House District 49 Republican primary:
No endorsement
Candidates running: Fsehazion Desalegn, Megan Lynn
