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State Senator Cindy Holscher won the race. Though Kansas is reliably Republican in presidential elections, its voters often break for Democrats in midterms.
Nov. 12, 2026Updated 6:16 p.m. ET
State Senator Cindy Holscher won election as governor of Kansas, keeping the seat in Democratic hands for a third straight term, The Associated Press said on Thursday.
She narrowly defeated Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee and the president of the Kansas Senate. Gov. Laura Kelly, the Democratic incumbent, was barred by term limits from seeking re-election.
Ms. Holscher’s victory added to a momentous election for Democrats in Kansas and across the country, and it maintained a rare lever of power for the party on the Great Plains.
Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor, became the first Kansas Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race since the 1930s. In addition, Democrats flipped several legislative seats to break a Republican supermajority in the Kansas House of Representatives, which will make it much harder to override vetoes by Ms. Holscher.
Kansans also voted out Attorney General Kris W. Kobach, a Republican who helped elevate illegal voting as a political issue. Republicans prevailed in other statewide races and will still have majorities in both legislative chambers.
Though Kansans reliably vote for Republicans for president, they have shown an independent streak in midterm elections, swinging for decades between Republican and Democratic governors. High costs, dissatisfaction with President Trump’s policies and a tangle of challenges facing farmers made the Plains region more winnable for Democrats this year.
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