The executive director of the refashioned United Kansas Party on Thursday filed to run for secretary of state in a field that includes two current legislators and one who served in the House previously.
Scott Morgan filed to run for secretary of state in a field that includes Republican state Reps. Pat Proctor and Ken Rahjes and former Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Day.
A fourth candidate, Democrat Sam Lane, works in the private sector and doesn’t list political experience.
Morgan, chief counsel to former Republican Gov. Mike Hayden, ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state against Kris Kobach in 2014. Morgan ran against Kobach in the Republican primary and lost with about 35% of the vote.
“In Kansas, the secretary of state has traditionally been a quiet steward of elections and public trust,” Morgan said in a statement Wednesday.
“We should not allow this office to become yet another source of partisan conflict driven more by party interests than concern for Kansas voters,” he said.
The future of the United Kansas Party will be on the line with this election.
A statewide candidate for United Kansas needs to get at least 1% of the total vote for that office in the general election to retain its recognized status as a political party.
If a United Kansas candidate for governor would get 5% of the vote, it would be considered a major party and would get a state-run primary like the Republicans and Democrats.
Last month, United Kansas announced that it was merging with the Free State Party, which is not recognized as a political party in Kansas but is more of a coalition of about 150 people.
Morgan took over as executive director, replacing Aaron Estabrook, one of the founding members of the United Kansas Party. United Kansas was originally created to promote fusion voting in Kansas.
Fusion voting allows multiple parties to nominate the same candidate for the same office in a general election with all the votes added together for a final tally.
While the two major parties nominate different candidates, third parties may cross over and endorse one of the major party candidates and “fuse” with them.
Estabrook stepped aside as executive director but said he will remain on the group’s board.
Morgan graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in journalism and law.
He worked in Washington for U.S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum and later served as staff counsel to U.S. Sen. Bob Dole on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts.
He also served as chief counsel for Dole’s 1988 presidential campaign.
Morgan co-chaired the effort to build the Free State Party, which was described as a new moderate political party “grounded in principled moderation, fiscal responsibility, and civic renewal.”
He previously chaired the Party of the Center initiative from 2017 to 2018, an effort to explore a moderate political path for Kansas.
The Party of the Center joined with the Serve America Movement to collect enough signatures to register candidates for the 2018 fall elections, but came up short.
