THE SUNFLOWER STATE CIRCUS
Your weekly briefing on the chaotic, extreme, and out-of-touch Republican primary for Kansas Governor
Welcome back to The Sunflower State Circus – This week, a candidate got caught lying about his own voting record, Wall Street money flooded into the primary, and the entire field kept fighting itself rather than offering solutions to Kansans.
Let's get into it.
SARNECKI INFLATES HIS OWN VOTING RECORD, SKIPPED VOTES
At a Leawood fundraiser, Sarnecki told the crowd his voting record was nearly spotless: “I missed two primaries in 20 years. Two primaries. That’s pretty good.”
The Secretary of State’s own voter records say otherwise – he missed the 2012 general election and five primaries since 2008, not two.
GOP PRIMARY GETS MORE EXPENSIVE AND CHAOTIC AS OUTSIDE MONEY FLOODS IN
Three new outside groups booked roughly $1 million in new ads this week alone – pushing total GOP primary spending to about $6.6 million.
The single biggest check, $749,000, came from the Club for Growth-aligned School Freedom Fund – that PAC is bankrolled almost entirely by Wall Street trader Jeff Yass, who told the Washington Post he sees himself as a benefactor for school-choice candidates.
SARNECKI: MASTERSON HAS "FAILED KANSAS"
Sarnecki is calling out Masterson for failing to deliver on his promise to lower property tax relief, despite having a GOP-majority in the state legislature.
He’s even demanding a special session and directly attacking Masterson for having “failed Kansas.”
ICYMI: KC STAR COLUMNIST CALLS OUT GOP FIELD FOR FIGHTING OVER WHO’S “TRUMPIEST” WHILE RURAL COMMUNITIES GET DECIMATED BY WASHINGTON
Kansas City Star columnist Derek Donovan asked this week why Masterson and Sarnecki are “fighting for the conductor’s seat on the Trump train” when families across Kansas are getting crushed by rising costs thanks to Washington’s cost-raising agenda.
He pointed to new polling showing Trump 10 points underwater with rural voters, where people are getting “bitten” by “rising gasoline and food prices.”
His bottom line: leaning into MAGA extremism might work in a primary, but it's a bad bet in November and wildly out of step with Kansans.
BOTTOM LINE
This primary continues to be a messy race to the right and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. Kansans will reject whoever comes out of this clown car primary in November.
See you next week as the circus rolls on.
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