July 17, 2026
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, your weekly look at the chaotic Republican primary for Kansas governor. Early voting opened Wednesday, the primary is 18 days out, and the field is unraveling by the day: no-shows at debates, no-shows at forums, no-shows at the ballot box.
Let’s get into it.
MASTERSON'S "NO-SHOW JOB" RAISES SERIOUS ETHICS QUESTIONS
WSU now admits it has no employment contract with him at all
A Kansas City Star investigation exposed frontrunner Ty Masterson's decade-long, million-dollar arrangement with a Koch-funded university program while he runs the Kansas Senate. A follow-up story this week made it worse:
Masterson made $163,000 last year as director of GoCreate, a Koch-backed WSU makerspace, nearly double his Senate salary, and more than $1.1 million over ten years. WSU's own budget book lists his full salary at $217,350.
When a Star journalist visited GoCreate, Masterson was nowhere to be found. The front desk couldn't put a name to his face, and the assistant director introduced herself as "the director here."
After weeks of stonewalling, WSU admitted it "does not have an employment contract with Ty Masterson."
In March he told the Senate the job is "funded by philanthropy" while killing an amendment to defund it. WSU now says his pay comes partly from university and affiliate funding and GoCreate revenue.
The bottom line: a million dollars over ten years for a job with no contract, no paper trail, and a boss nobody at the office can identify.
A PARTY OF NO-SHOWS
Masterson's empty office fits a pattern throughout the primary: this field skips debates, forums and even elections:
Charlotte O'Hara counted Sarnecki's absences at three Republican events last Saturday, on top of no-shows in Garden City, Junction City, Emporia, Burlington, Winfield, Salina and Ottawa.
In Ottawa, Sarnecki sent paid staffers instead of showing up, prompting O'Hara to note he has "as many campaign staff members as a hound dog has fleas in July."
Sarnecki has voted in just 15 of 36 elections since moving to Kansas in 2008, and the Kansas Reflector caught him inflating that history, including skipping the 2022 Value Them Both primary.
Masterson, meanwhile, skipped the final GOP-sanctioned debate for an ice cream social, with Schmidt and Rogers sitting out too, leaving three of seven candidates on stage.
THE TAKEAWAY
The Kansas Republican primary comes down to this: a frontrunner dodging debates and a million-dollar paycheck he can't explain, and a challenger who skips forums and elections. Whoever survives August 4 will be broke, battered, and rejected by half their own party. Kansans deserve better.
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