Missouri and Kansas voters reject Republican priorities, but don’t expect a November ‘blue wave’
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What were the surprising primary election results in Kansas and Missouri?
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From KCUR, this is up to date. I'm producer Hallie Jackson. What a primary election day it was in Kansas and Missouri. Voters across both states turned down some of the top priorities of Republican leaders in those deeply Republican states, and they turned them down by enormous margins. At the same time, GOP primary voters chose conservative candidates endorsed by President Trump to carry their banner in November's elections. We'll talk later on in this segment with some of the primary winners, including Kansas Democratic nominees, Adam Hamilton for U.S. Senate. Senate. and Cindy Holscher for Governor. We'll also speak with Republican Chris Stegal, who won the Republican primary in Missouri's 6th district.
But first, let's take a high level look at the election results in Kansas and Missouri, and what they have to tell us about voters. Our host, Brian Ellison, spoke with Dr. Matt Harris. He's an associate professor of political science at Park University. And Dr. Alexandra Middlewood also joined. She's an associate professor of political science. of medical science at Wichita State University.
So, you know, one of the biggest stories of last night were those amendments we mentioned in both Kansas and Missouri. In Kansas, voters were deciding whether to elect Supreme Court judges. In Missouri, the uh amendments were about eliminating the income tax and about making it harder to amend the state constitution. Voters uh spoke very loudly against those legislature promoted amendments. What do you make of that, Alex?
Yeah, so this is another example very similar to twenty twenty two, where we see Legislative leaders championing these constitutional amendments and then voters decisively voting them down. in these direct elections on those amendments. And we actually see e that looks to be even more so this year. So in 2022, the amendment went down by 18 points. This year it's on track to go down by about 20 22 points. Excuse me. And so an even more decisive victory there for the the vote no side. And it really just shows that there does seem to be some Some divides within the Republican Party on who they're voting for for politicians versus the types of issues they're gonna vote for. for the c these constitutional amendments.
Um and that just because someone's a Republican doesn't necessarily mean that they support the agenda that their legislative leaders are pushing.
And yet they keep electing them. Uh m Matt, do you see the same sort of thing on the Missouri side?
Yeah, you know, it's kind of funny because when we were talking about amendment four, making it harder for citizens uh to amend the uh Missouri state constitution, uh we were talking a lot about how, you know, it's it's hard to find something that's gonna pass all eight congressional districts. It's hard to find consensus across all eight districts. We saw consensus across all eight districts yesterday. Almost all hundred and
sixty counties or whatever it is in Missouri.
Yeah, and it was no on four and it was it was no on five, a a real uh rebuke of of uh the priorities of of Republicans in Jeff City. Um as Alex said, I I think, you know, uh in primaries we sometimes try to say, well, what can we take from this going into November? But it's kind of hard to to take lessons from what we expected to be a a good November for Democrats, but there is this divide between, you know, uh voters might say we
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What were the surprising primary election results in Kansas and Missouri?
0:00–6:11
2
Why did voters overwhelmingly reject the Republican‑backed constitutional amendments?
6:11–11:56
3
How did Kansas voters decide on the Supreme Court judge amendment?
11:56–17:03
4
What does the defeat of Missouri’s income‑tax amendment reveal about voter sentiment?
17:03–21:42
5
Who are the Democratic nominees (Cindy Holscher and Adam Hamilton) and what are their campaign priorities?
21:42–26:20
6
What did Republican primary winners (Ty Masterson, Chris Stegal, Chris Stagal) say about their upcoming November races?
26:20–31:25
7
How might the November elections serve as a referendum on Trump’s influence in Kansas and Missouri?
31:25–34:49
8
What are the key takeaways and predictions for the November ‘blue wave’ in these states?
34:49–39:06
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Up To Date
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