The Kansas governor’s race, in November, will see Laura Kelly of the Democrats go up against GOP candidate Derek Schmidt after both won nominations from their respective parties. 

Kelly, the incumbent Democrat, had won the 2018 election with a 48% vote but there are some doubts about how she’ll fare in the fight for the governor’s seat. The 72-year-old politician ran out of favour with some Republicans over the COVID health restrictions imposed during the pandemic. 

Schmidt, on the other hand, served as the attorney general of the state since 2010 and also has the backing of former US President Donald Trump. The 54-year-old supported Trump’s claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from the then-president and even joined a lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of US President Joe Biden’s win. 

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The Republican also released an opinion on the amendment to abortion rights, saying that the state constitution doesn’t protect the right to an abortion. However, Schmidt has maintained that this doesn’t hold true for pregnancies with medical emergencies. 

On the other hand, Kelly is very pro-abortion, saying “My position on reproductive rights has been clear from the get-go, from the moment I walked onto the Senate floor. I really do believe this is a decision that should be left to a woman and her physician, and not involve politicians”, as per KCUR, the Kansas public radio station. 

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The Senate nominations for the state are also in, and incumbent GOP candidate Jerry Moran has won it again. The 68-year-old American lawyer and politician, has held this seat since 2011. He notably voted against the creation of an independent commission to investigate the Jan 6 attack at the Capitol, which was largely attributed to Trump riling up his supporters by suggesting that he’d actually won the election but Democrats stole it from him.